FutuRanma
by Wonderbee31
Summary: Ranma Saotome, 1000 years into the future? Will the future be able to handle him, and can he handle it? Rated for language.
1. Chapter 1

I can't believe it's been as long as it's been for me to really start writing fanfics, but here we go again. Disclaimer's be us: Futurama was created by Matt Groening and David X Cohen, and is owned by the Curiosity Company. Ranma ½ was created by Rumiko Takhashi and is distributed by Viz. Communication is North America. I am not doing this for any profit, nor expect do I expect any, I'm just building sandcastles in someone else's sandbox.

The streets of Nerima were packed wall to wall with people tonight, December 31st, 2000. Everyone here was excited about this once in a year event, with the coming of the new millennium, the atmosphere was even more festive than usual. It seemed as though everyone was getting into the spirit of things, well, almost everyone.

Had you been able to gain a bird's eye view of the town, you would have seen hundreds of thousands of people going hither and yon. Dropping in a little closer and you may have been able to make out a particular dot, moving with a singular purpose. Drop in even closer, and you would be able to make out a few distinguishing features, including jet black hair, a bright red shirt, and dark black pants.

Just a little closer and you could make out that the hair was tied into a very distinctive pigtail.

The person with this particular hairstyle was currently moving through the crush of people, seeming to run past them and through them with hardly anyone taking notice of his presence. Even as he moved by, around and sometimes over the crowds, Ranma Saotome, martial artist extraordinaire, and a college student with somewhat better grades than his previous high school ones, smirked to himself, because yes, he was that damned good. Still, he knew that he had to hurry it up, since one of the slogans of the pizza place that he had worked at for the last year had been that the "Wild Horse" could make a delivery anywhere in Nerima in less than twenty minutes, or the pizza's free'.

Ranma winced to himself as he remembered back to his first week on the job, he'd been in the middle of a delivery, when Ryoga, Kuno, and Mouse had, for some reason God only knew, decided to attack him all at the same time. Yes, he beat them all in only a matter of minutes, but still, he'd ended up being two minutes late with his order. He only realized later on, when he got back to the shop, that the cost of the free pizza to the customer was the same amount that the boss held out from his pay check that week. Ranma had then decided to make it a point of honor to never be late again, and in fact, after the first three months on the job the boss had congratulated him on his never being late for a delivery.

Six months after that, he'd gotten his first raise, ever, and then another one two months later. Ranma had been really appreciative of this, since he needed the money really badly. While he knew that he could have learned more martial arts techniques while working at the Cat Café, he also knew that he'd never really make enough money to be able to start doing the things that he wanted to do, like buy the stuff that he wanted to buy, especially for the most special person in his life, the person that he knew he wanted to be with. Now, all he had to do was tell her, and truth be told, Ranma would almost have rather faced Saffron and Herb at the same time, rather than confess love to a girl…no a woman, she was definitely a woman now.

Still, Ranma knew that he'd better pick up the pace, or he'd never get back home in time to meet up with her like they'd planned earlier in the week. 'Damn it, he thought to himself, here it was eighteen minutes to midnight, getting ready to go home, and old man Hideyoshi has to accept just one more order, one that's as far away from the shop as it could be, and I'm the delivery guy that got stuck with it'. Oh well, Ranma mused, better take a short-cut, and with that, he leaped over a crowd of drunken salary men on their way to another bar, and grabbed a handhold on the side of a bus that was going in the same direction as his order.

Ranma had learned a couple of years ago, there was a time and place to go all out, and rather than use his energy to try and make it in time, best to start using some non-lateral thinking, and make the moments when you really needed to pour on the energy count when you needed them. Right now, the bus was going in his direction, so he could take a little break, and conserve himself for what he might need later on down the way. The people on the bus that could see him waved, and Ranma waved back. It seems that in the four years since he'd came to Nerima, he'd picked up several reputations, first as a womanizer, because of all the fiancées that'd managed to gather there looking for him, then as a troublemaker, because of all the challengers or rivals that'd came afterwards.

These days though, he had another reputation, that as a new up and coming member of the community, and he found that he was becoming quite popular with the older people in the ward. Several of the elders had even gone so far as to express statements to the effect of Ranma becoming the go to person whenever there were disputes of various different natures that didn't really need the authority's assistance with. With that kind of clout backing him up, many people had started to openly make small suggestions, and some not so small, that he think about running for a council position when he'd gotten a little older. Ranma of course, could have cared less about politics, but he'd learned several things over the years, and one was that politics was a necessary evil, if not, he and the rest of the Nerima Wrecking Crew couldn't have gotten away with half the stuff they did when they were younger, if certain people in the ward, including Soun Tendo hadn't been keeping things to a low simmer, rather than letting everything boil over.

Yes, it been mentioned more than once, to his mother, father, and any of the old fiancées, that he was going to be the go-to person by the time he finished up college courses, and found a real place in the Nerima ward to settle down. Of course, Ranma himself dismissed these rumours with nothing more than an embarrassed nod and tug on his now longer ponytail, but those older people in the know, would usually acknowledge among themselves, that as far as most of the people of Nerima went, Ranma was definitely up-and-coming. Catching a glimpse of something, Ranma did a cute victory pose while hanging alongside the bus, and a couple of middle-school aged girls giggled, even as they again got a couple of pictures, and then shyly waved and covered their moths as they giggled again. Ranma gave them one of his killer smiles, the one that he'd figured out over the years to have the most devastating effect on girls that he met, then did a quick leaping spin in mid-air, bounced of the roof of a taxi, and landed on the sidewalk, now less than a block away from where the address on the delivery notice was.

Glancing down at a watch that had been a Christmas present from his special love, he saw that the time was now 11:47 p.m. He knew that things would have to work out perfectly for him to be able to make it back home anywhere close to midnight, but he could hope.

'Great, if I can make everything work out, then I can find the place, get the money, and just drop it off tomorrow morning when I go to my business class,' thought Ranma. 'Maybe I can still make it home at least not too long after midnight, and be able to make my gift for her count as not too long after New Years.'

With that thought, Ranma leaped to a sprint, and in less than thirty seconds, he found himself in front of a large building, one of the newer ones that been built in the last ten years... Looking down at the address, and back up at the number on the side of the building, he quickly verified that this was indeed the Ikari office park and Happy-go-Fun land centre. 'Hmm, that sounded…different, to say the least' thought Ranma.

Shaking his head to dislodge those thoughts, he immediately started for the entrance way, only taking a moment to glance again at the delivery notice, he made out the last part of a name, Freely, and a room number, 1117. Looking up, Ranma counted 11 stories. Groaning a bit, he noted that if the express elevators were working, then he could make it in less than a minute, if not, the he'd have to climb the stairs, and while it wouldn't take much longer for him than that, he'd come out of the whole a little more sweaty than he'd prefer. "Well," grumbled Ranma out loud, "there's nothing to do but get there as quick as I can."

With that, he went quickly through the doors, and over to the elevator, noting that they were indeed shut down for the night. Grumbling a bit, he dashed over to the stairway entrance, and took off sprinting up them, two and three steps at a time. Less than two minutes later, he found himself on the top floor, and pausing only long enough to straighten his hair a bit, took off at a fast pace down the hallway, searching for the room number. 'Okay, he thought, where's room 1117? There's 1129, walking, walking, here's 1121, 1119, and…1117.' Stopping in front of the doorway, Ranma glanced up at it, to see a sign on it that read, Katsuhito Cryonics, Inc. Below that was a smaller one, which read, 'no power failures since 1999'.

Looking at it harder, Ranma saw that the nine was a post-it note, and if you were to flip it up, there was a 6 that was the actual number below it.

Shaking his head, Ranma knocked on the door, and waited twenty seconds, before knocking again. With no response, Ranma knocked again, and spoke up.

"Hello, is there anyone here?" Hideyoshi's pizza service, and martial arts dojo, we get it to you the fastest in Nerima, and also make sure that the opposition falls before us." Ranma always resisted the urge to roll his eyes when he said the spiel, the first time he'd practiced it at home, Nabiki had walked by the room, and howled with laughter for a good five minutes.

When there was no answer, Ranma walked over to the door, and peered through the frosted glass. There was a light coming from inside, so he figured it was some poor sap that was stuck having to finish up paperwork for taxes for the old year. Reaching over to the door handle, Ranma cautiously tried it, and was surprised to find it turned easily.

Opening it up the door creaked with an eerie groan, much like the doors on that haunted house movie he'd watched last week with some of his school friends. Stepping through the threshold, Ranma saw that it was much darker than he'd originally thought, and the light he'd seen from the door came from several glowing cases set against the wall on the far side of the room. Stopping only to allow his eyes time to adjust to the gloom, Ranma looked around, the room, but saw nobody there.

"Hello," he called out again, "Hideyoshi's pizza, did someone here order a squid and corn extra cheese deep dish? Hello?"

After hearing nothing, Ranma walked further into the sparsely decorated room, carefully scanning it, with his regular eyesight, as well as with his full ki senses, just in case something was amiss.

"Where is everybody?" He growled out loud, "Hey, I've got a delivery for an I.P…Freely? Hell's Donkeys, great, that's just great!" Ranma stood there for a second, his mind not really wanting to process the new information that he had, but there it was, this whole delivery had been a bad joke, he'd missed the chance to be able to give his special someone a kiss at the stroke of midnight, because some asshole had decided to play a practical joke on the pizza delivery man and it had to be on this night, of all nights. Sighing heavily, Ranma checked his watch again, and saw that the time was now 4 minutes to midnight, which meant there was no way he'd get back home in time. Oh well, best to just sit and relax a moment, have a slice of the pizza, and let Hideyoshi know tomorrow that they'd had a gag pulled on them, he was usually forgiving, even when Ranma couldn't find the creep that had pulled it on them.

Still…Damn it all to hell, the one night when he'd made plans, all his friends where going to be there, and he'd finally found the perfect one, and now…Ranma grasped and held the small box that was in his pants pocket, now things where just going all wrong. "Man, he said out loud, do the spirits just work hard to screw up my life one way or another?"

Walking heavily over to where a desk sat on the floor, Ranma pulled the chair behind it back, and set the pizza on the desktop. There was a computer on the desk, a newer model, turned off of course, and a phone setting next to it. He picked up the handset, only to find out that, "There's no dial tone," groused Ranma, of course there's no dial tone, that'd make everything go so much easier tonight, so of course it couldn't!"

Placing the handset down with a little more force than usual, Ranma vowed silently that the next thing he'd buy for himself would be a cell phone, as soon as the damn store opened up again as a matter of fact. Sighing again, Ranma leaned back in the chair, only to notice that the glow from the boxes he'd seen earlier had gotten a little brighter. Curious in spite of everything that'd happened in the short time he'd been there, Ranma decided to see what was so special about these things, and walked over to them, keeping his sense on high alert anyway, since you never could tell after all.

As he got closer to them, he was surprised to see that there looked to be light layers of frost on the glass cover lids of the cases, even though the room he was in was pretty warm. Ranma stepped closer, and got ready to peer inside, when a "BONG" sounded from outside, causing him to jerk his head to the window.

Walking over towards it, Ranma saw several sets of fireworks going off around the city, as well as several more sounds of bells ringing throughout the night. Hanging his head down for a moment, Ranma whispered to himself, "Happy New Year."

Staying there a moment longer, Ranma pulled himself together, and decided that even though he was late, if he hurried back, and made the jumps on the roofs with out having to hit the ground much, he could make it back home before half past midnight, if luck would help him out a bit. With this new resolve, Ranma turned around and got ready to leave, just as he caught a glimpse of the lighted case again, with that strange frost on it.

"Heh, if Shampoo caught me being this nosy about something, she'd tell me about how curiosity killed the c, c, c, furry things," he gasped out.

Grinning wryly now, he stepped over and looked inside, and immediately stepped back again. "What the hell place is this!' he thought to himself, before he stepped closer again. Inside the case, no, no it must be some kind of a coffin, because inside of it, was a body.

The person looked like a typical middle-aged salary man, around 40 or 50, with a head full of hair, that was thinning in front, and a face that was just starting to develop worry lines from stress, much like his old man had when back when he started training Ranma when he was young.

Brushing the frost off the glass with his hand and absent-mindedly rubbing the cold off on his shirt, Ranma saw that the man was leaning back against the inside of the 'coffin', dressed in normal clothes, a suit and tie, and could have been asleep, had that not been that pale look on his face, though that could have been due in part to the glow from the exterior light in the case he was in.

Ranma stepped back, and after looking at all the other cases, saw that each one had an occupant, except for one over closest to the window, which sat dark, and with the lid open, almost seeming to invite him to step inside. Ranma shuddered for a brief moment before thinking, 'No way am I going to get inside that thing, no, better to just get the hell out of here, and see how fast I could make it home across Nerima.'

With that last thought, Ranma turned around, crossed over rapidly to the desk, pick up the pizza box and its contents, and started towards the door, only to hear something that he really didn't need, or want, to hear.

"Where the hell am I now!" came from the hallway outside the door.

After hearing that, Ranma steeped back form the door, he really didn't want to get into a fight now, the lost boy had been gone for close to eight months this time, and since he'd been gone, it'd been one of the few really nice bits of peace that Ranma had had in a long time.

For one reason or another, Ryoga had become more of a horse's ass than usual in the last two years, blaming Ranma for one thing or another, to the point that Ranma had considered stopping holding back in his fights with him, and just pummeling the living hell out of him. Still, that wasn't how a true martial artist should be, or at least that's what his old man had drilled into his skull over the years, so Ranma had simply kept up the status quo.

However, the last time they'd fought, Ryoga had almost managed to damage Ms. Tendo's shrine in the dojo, and that had been one of the few things that'd set Ranma off, badly enough that he'd ended up beating him to almost an inch of his life, especially when Ryoga had mocked him after he'd told him to be careful around the shrine.

Ryoga had disappeared after that day, simply wandering off, and he hadn't seen him since then, but it now seemed that he'd walked back into his life again. 'Maybe, thought Ranma, if I don't say anything and just stay here, he'll wander off, and I can get back home.'

Unfortunately, the same luck that had plagued Ranma so far tonight, held on for a while longer, as the door to the room suddenly opened up, and a bandana clad head poked through the door. "Hello, asked a deep voice, can someone tell me the way to the Tendo dojo in Nerima? Is anybody around here…Ranma, how'd you get here in New Zealand!"

The pony-tailed martial artist cursed to himself for a moment before answering, "Hello Ryoga, you're in Japan now, not New Zealand."

"Damn you, Ranma, because of you, I've seen hell!" spat out Ryoga. "Everything's your fault! How dare you leave Akane for some other whore, I'll bet you…glurk!"

The glurk came at that moment, because when Ryoga had said the word whore, Ranma was in motion, faster than Ryoga could even see, and now had him pinned against the desk, while his left hand was around his throat, right hand pulled back and ready to strike.

"Ryoga," hissed Ranma, "You need to learn to shut your mouth, before you insult the person I've fallen in love with again."

In anyone else, that powerful threat would have been enough to have cowed them, yet Ryoga was not anyone else, at least someone with common sense.

"Ranma," he gasped out, "You don't know what love is, all you want is to have somebody to do perverted things with and…geh!"

This happened when Ranma increased the pressure against Ryoga's throat some more.

"Man, you just don't have any damned sense at all do you Ryoga," said Ranma. "I wonder if maybe the Kuno's are smarter than you, at least the two of them finally wised up over the years, After I taught them about my curse, now if only Akane would do the same about yours," he muttered out loud.

To his surprise, Ryoga came up and managed to knock Ranma's hand away while his attention was distracted from him by his own introspection.

"Don't you say anything about Akane," snarled Ryoga, "I can't believe a bastard like you didn't have the guts to come clean about your betrayal of her, but instead she had to find out through the Nerima rumor mill that…"

"That what, Ryoga?" snapped Ranma, "That I found out who I was in love with, that I told it to Akane's face plainly, and she just didn't want to believe me? That she found out from Nabiki, who doesn't know not to leave well enough alone! That just because she felt that I was her property at one time, that she could do what the hell she wanted to me? Newsflash Ryoga, that part of my life is over, and Akane and Nabiki have finally gotten a clue about how far you can push me! I love them both, as sisters, and friends, but that's it, and all it'll ever be. As for the rest of the girls, they've learned to leave me alone when I need to be, and I've made friends of them as well, but you!"

Ranma stepped up closer to Ryoga, who stepped back, "I can't believe a bastard like you has any claim of honor! You, who continuously slept in my fiancée's bed, taking advantage of my promise not to reveal your secret, and then turning around, and daring to attack me when your spoiled little princess Akane whined and bawled about how life was unfair! You, who didn't have enough courage to tell her that you're her pet pig, you little fuck, and then called me honor-less, while you had Akari, and still chased after Akane! Most of all though, what pisses me off so badly, is that you've got the fucking nerve to say you've been through hell! I'd give up one day, ONE DAY, of have not been thrown in that fucking pit of cats, and instead end up being lost for a decade! At least then I might have still had my sanity, instead of never being able to hold a c ca, cat again!" Even as Ranma said this, his aura, which had been blazing bright red, now had streaks of green throughout it, making Ryoga insanely think of Christmas trees for a moment, but the fury on Ranma's face squelched that thought almost immediately.

"That's what makes me so angry about your whole damn "vengeance" quest P-chan!" said a glaring Ranma, who had slowly started to close in on Ryoga. "You've got the nerve to challenge me to a fight over bread, then forfeit the fucking match, and then, blame it on me because you, you, couldn't make it to the lot behind your house."

Taking a breath, Ranma continued. "You know, I would've taken you to the lot back then, but you probably would've blamed your loss on me then as well, wouldn't you? Then you had to follow me all the way to China! Because for one damn stupid-ass reason or another, you just couldn't let the whole thing die! Well fuck you P-chan! Why don't you go crawling back to Akari, be your little piggish self, and stay the hell out of my life, permanently! Because I've gotten tired of this whole game, and I'm not going to play around anymore."

With that last statement, Ranma turned around, picked up the pizza box that had been knocked off the desk when he and Ryoga had started arguing, and headed towards the open doorway.

Ryoga stared at him, as he picked the box up, then he felt his depression growing again, more and more with each passing second, before an exclamation burst out of him.

"Ranma," he snarled, "for the insults that you've heaped upon me, and for everyone else as well, prepare to, why don't you…just, just die!"

With that said, Ryoga leaped at the other man, mayhem in mind, only to find that his depression was becoming mixed with frustration with each passing moment, as Ranma almost effortlessly either dodged or blocked every killing blow Ryoga threw at him.

What made it worse for Ryoga was Ranma's own running commentary, including his tips for not wasting motion during his assault.

"Not bad Ryoga," said Ranma calmly, "but your left needs more work; oh c'mon, don't overextend so much during a spin kick, I know you can do better than the tomboy."

Ryoga only growled at that last statement and punched harder, hoping to maybe get in a lucky hit. The strange dance of violence circled around the room, when suddenly, something unexpected by both parties happened. Ranma had just dodged an elbow, and had turned around when he felt something bump into his leg. Glancing down, he saw that it was the chair that had been under the desk, hadn't it? Yes, he'd been sure that it'd been under the desk only a moment ago, and now it was some two feet away from the desk, just close enough for him to trip over if he wasn't in better control of his body.

Smirking, Ranma turned back up, just in time to see Ryoga's fist heading towards him, and then, there was an impact that felt like a hammer blow, and Ranma was tumbling onto his back for a moment, before he deftly rolled thorough it and got back on his feet, just in time to catch another kick to the side.

Ranma smiled grimly, having had enough he decided that it was time to put Ryoga away for good, when he noticed that the kick had knocked him through and into the opened chamber.

'Thank goodness it's empty,' thought Ranma, 'would've really hated to land in here when there might've been somebody… BANG! "What the hell Ryoga!" exclaimed Ranma, as the fanged boy had just slammed the lid shut on what was now a temporary prison at best.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Laughed Ryoga, "You look like one of those Gundam figures in a package; maybe I might be able to get a good price for you Ranma! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Ranma snarled out something unintelligible for a moment, before he glared back at the permanent lost boy. "Yeah Ryoga," he said sarcastically, that's really funny, now move out of the way while I get this thing open and…"

FLASH!

Ryoga blinked his eye for a few seconds, momentarily blinded by what he figured was another of Ranma's cheating methods of getting away from him, but stood there stunned when his vision finally cleared up. Ranma was…there, but he wasn't the Ranma that he'd know for so many years now, no, this was…a thing more than a person. It looked like Ranma, had the clothes that he always wore, but, it was almost like he was now a statue instead of a person.

His skin, which had been a healthy shade of color a minute ago, well, actually more red with fury, was now an almost alabaster white, which reflected the fluorescent light from inside nicely, and while his eyes were open, there was no movement from them, nothing at all to let someone know that the person in the chamber had ever been alive.

Ryoga started at that thought, not alive? Ranma was dead?

"No more battles?" whispered Ryoga. "No more rivalry, no more fighting over Akane? Akane, yes, I can finally tell her my true feelings! At last, I finally beat you Ranma! Ha! I won for once and for all, no more Ranma no more rivalry, no more having to worry about him stepping in and taking Akane away from me! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

After his little victory dance, Ryoga turned around and after searching for several minutes, finally found the door. He turned back around, and looked into the face, the now dead face of his most hated rival, and found for a moment a bit of guilt that started to come through his consciousness, before he ruthlessly squashed it back down.

"Goodbye Ranma," he said wryly, "I guess in the end, the better man finally won."

With that parting statement, he turned, opened the door, and walked out of the room, and that was the last time the two men ever saw each other again. However, if either Ryoga, or Ranma, had paid a bit more attention to the "coffins" in the room, they would have noticed that each of them had clocks on their front panels, at the very top of the chamber. If only they'd taken the time to notice, they would have saw that each of these clocks were in a countdown mode, some with only several months to go, while others had years before they finished. Ranma's clock was now at:

999 years

11 months

30 days

23 hours

46 minutes

37 seconds

36

35

34…

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

Author notes:

Wow! I never expected this fiction to get the reception that it did, and frankly, it was a little scary. I had more hits and reviews on this than all my other stories combined, and that made me worried about how to keep it up, and whether I'd be able to make it any better than the first part. Still, I figure that I have to try, or this fan fiction will just sit on my desktop. So here we are. What'll happen now is, I'm going to have one chapter be about what's happening in Nerima, and the next chapter will be set 1,000 years in the future. So for now, here's what's happening back in Nerima with some of Ranma's acquaintances, so Ranma only appears in flashback scenes here. While it may be considered sappy by some, well, it's just hard for me to be truly mean to any of the characters, as I don't think that there's anybody who can't be redeemed at some point. Tha's just me though. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Futurama was created by Matt Groening and David X Cohen, while Ranma is owned by Rumiko Takahashi.

FutuRanma

What happened before?

After his little victory dance, Ryoga turned around and after searching for several minutes, finally found the door. He turned back around, and looked into the face, the now dead face of his most hated rival, and found for a moment a bit of guilt that started to come through his consciousness, before he ruthlessly squashed it back down.

"Goodbye Ranma," he said wryly, "I guess in the end, the better man finally won."

With that parting statement, he turned, opened the door, and walked out of the room, and that was the last time the two men ever saw each other again. However, if either Ryoga, or Ranma, had paid a bit more attention to the "coffins" in the room, they would have noticed that each of them had clocks on their front panels, at the very top of the chamber. If only they'd taken the time to notice, they would have saw that each of these clocks were in a countdown mode, some with only several months to go, while others had years before they finished. Ranma's clock was now at:

999 years

11 months

30 days

23 hours

46 minutes

37 seconds

36

35

Chapter 1-A

Ranma dreamed. At least that's what it felt like at the time, like everything was a dream. He remembered people, and things and places. He recalled parts of his life, and remembered things that happened to him when he was younger, with an almost crystal clarity. He remembered his 5th birthday; his mother had given him a kitten, all black, except for a patch of white on one side of its nose. He'd named it 'Cat' at first, then his mom had laughed, and scooped him up in her arms, and said that he'd have to give it a proper name later on. Ranma remembered giggling, and thought of how warm it was in his mom's arms at that moment. She smelled of vanilla, and cake mix, and the warmth of a kitchen. Ranma remembered, and mentally smiled, because it was the best day of his life, up to that moment.

Two weeks later, he and his father left on the first leg of their training trip.

January 1st, 2001

In many areas of Nerima, people there were celebrating the New Year like there was no tomorrow, with parties that had started before midnight, and some of them still going on, with no sign of them letting up at all. However, in certain part of the city, the occupants of certain residences were in a dark mood, as if they'd just learned of the death of a family member, and in truth, as far as they knew, he was dead.

10:47 A.M.

Kuno mansion:

In the austere halls of the huge home, it's occupants were in the middle of their own private moments, left to their own thoughts Principal Kuno sat in his private study, he'd been there ever since his children had come home three hours ago, and told him what they'd heard the previous night. Staring at a pair of head clippers, the principal took another drink of sake, straight from the bottle, before he threw them against the bare wall, with enough force to embed them in it, before he lowered his head into his hands, and started to quietly weep for the young person who'd did so much for his children, so much more than he'd been able to do for them for he last 12 years.

Outside, in the training hall that was at least three times bigger than the Tendo training hall, Tatewaki Kuno was in the middle of another sword practice move, the same one that'd he had been doing now for the last two hours. As he moved his practice sword through the complicated maneuvers, he could almost see a ghostly figure, dodging, and then telling him where to correct, before he'd have had him start over again. Kuno snarled out as he made another misstep, before he straightened up, and thought back to a day long ago, when his dreams had been shattered, and another had been born.

Flashback

"All right Kuno, we've been doing this stupid dance for the last two years, and frankly, I'm sick of it, and of your stupid fantasies," stated a certain pig-tailed martial artist.

Even as he said this, Kuno growled at him, his lips doing a good imitation of a dog's as he tried to stare Ranma down. "Know this Saotome, I will discover what you've done to the beautiful pig-tailed girl, as well as finally break the beauteous Akane Tendo from your spell, so that I may finally date with them both, and let them know the full glory of my bountiful love!"

Ranma, far from being intimidated, merely shook his head, before he seemed to steel himself, and then walked over to Kuno.

"Kuno," he said coolly, "This has gone on long enough. It's time for you to come back to reality, and after talking with Nabiki, I realize that there's only one way to be able to get you to understand what the pig-tailed girl is to me. Akane, Ukyo, please, let's get this over with."

As Ranma said this, the two girls walked over to stand on either side of him, Akane on his right, Ukyo on his left, as he took up a position directly in front of Kuno, staring him dead in the eyes.

"All right Kuno," said Ranma, "Time to wake up to the real world. Akane, if you please?"

With that statement, Kuno goggled as Akane poured some water out of the large kettle she was holding, and his hated enemy seemed to shrink in size, before he faded out completely, and there standing in his place was…

"Pig-tailed girl! Have you have come to me at last in my time of need to aid me against our common enemy!" shouted out Kuno, as he quickly reached over and grabbed the fiery-haired beauty in an Amazon worthy glomp.

However, instead of the usual response that he'd become used to over the years, his love instead seemed to simply go limp in his arms, before she spoke to him, her voice muffled by his chest.

"Kuno," she tiredly said, "You need to wake up to what's real now." Ukyo, would you do it now, please?"

Kuno felt, rather than saw the hot water wash over his love, then he felt something more, as her form seemed to expand, and grown more…masculine? With a start, he leaned back, to see his rival for her love, but, something didn't seem right here?

"Saotome!" he asked incredulously, "What, what happened to…to my love? How…how can this be? This is some trick of yours, it must be!"

Ranma sighed again, before he opened the ties of his Chinese shirt, and placed Kuno's hand on his bare chest.

"No Kuno, it isn't a trick, but it is magic." Said Ranma, before he looked over to his right side again, "Akane, will you please, do it again?"

Akane looked as though she were about to protest, but the look she received from Ranma made her shut her mouth with an audible click, though the frown was still there on her otherwise beautiful face. Pouring the water over Ranma, Kuno was at first surprised, then openly shocked to find that he now held thegorgeous pig-tailed girl's nude breast in his hand.

"P, pig, pig-tailed girl, what, what does this mean, what, what?" stammered out the now visibly shaken kendoist, even as his hand continued to grip her breast, now almost painfully.

"Kuno," growled out Ranma, "it means that today, at least some of your delusions die. Do it now Ukyo!"

With that said, Ukyo poured water over his love's head once again, and this time, Kuno felt and saw the change, as the lovely breast disappeared, only to be replaced by a chest of firm and hardened muscle.

"No, this cannot be!" shouted Kuno, "It can't be true! It just can't be! No!"

With that, the wooden sword that he'd been holding loosely in his hand snapped up, and he swung it with deadly intent at his foes head.

Akane and Ukyo had jumped back, only to gasp as they saw Ranma standing there, in a relaxed position, apparently waiting for the blow to strike.

"Ranma/Ranchan!" they both cried out at the same moment.

Even as he saw that the swing was going to connect, Kuno realized something that he'd been denying for years, that he was less of a swordsman that he'd thought himself to be. 'Still,' he thought to himself, 'Sometimes, it's already too late to make corrections to errors, until they're already made.'

Right after that, the sword landed alongside Ranma head at full force.

Ranma rolled and tumble too the ground, with blood gushing from the side of his head, till he finally came to a stop, with both girls cradling him, even as they were crying out his name.

"Ranma!" shrieked Akane, "Ranma, what the hell were you trying to prove, you dummy!"

"Ranchan!" cried Ukyo, "Haven't you got any damn sense left at all, you jackass!"

Kuno stood over the trio, his wooden sword having slipped from now nerveless fingers moments ago, staring at what he'd done. Had he finally defeated his best enemy, his…best male friend? Friend?

"Oh my God" he said to himself, "What have I done, that I would strike at someone who left themselves open like that? Where is my honor now? What have I done, mother?"

Kuno held his head low, as he tried to come to terms with the violence that he'd wrought, when a sound made his head snap up again/

"Kuno" coughed out Ranma, "Look at me. Are you so truly happy with what you did now? Is this the way a true samurai treats his enemy? Now look, and see at least…at least one truth tonight. Akane, please get the water again."

Akane stared at Ranma horrified, before he nodded his head, and she nodded back at him, and walked over to the kettle of cold water that now lay where she'd dropped it only moments earlier. Quickly walking back over, she looked intently at Ranma, and he just as intently stared back at her for a moment, before he nodded again. Closing her eyes, Akane tipped the mouth of the kettle over Ranma, and Kuno stared, as Ranma shrieked out loud, as the change happened again, before he held his hands over his ears, in a vain attempt to drown out the anguish that he heard, pain that he'd caused.

Ranma visibly took a hold of himself, before he, now she looked up at Kuno, blood still oozing from the nasty head wound she'd received from the training sword.

"Look at me Kuno." She gasped out, "Is this the way a samurai treats his opponent? Striking out like an animal, instead of someone that claims to have the heart and soul of a warrior? Do you think this is the way that the great warriors of old would act? Do you think they would be proud of you?"

Kuno stared at what he'd thought to be his lovely goddess, until just a few moments ago, before he once again hung his head, though not before the trio caught the shimmer of a few tears rolling down his cheeks.

"No", he almost whispered, whether to them or himself was unknown, "But, what can I do to fix this horrible error, this…thing I've done, to both you, and myself Saotome? What can I do to atone for the grievous sins I've committed?"

Ranma coughed, and slowly started to help himself up, before the two girls on either side of him stopped him, with a little more force than necessary. Ranma slowly glanced between the two of them, but the look he saw in their eyes told him, that it would be useless to try and struggle for the moment. Seeing that, he motioned for Kuno to kneel down next to her, and when Kuno did, spoke softly to him.

"Kuno", the way for you to atone, is to work at actually becoming what you have deluded yourself to aspire to, and I will help you," she quietly said.

Kuno stared back at his love/rival…whatever and simply nodded.

Ranma nodded back, and then spoke again.

"Kuno, you have to learn to embody everything that the way of the warrior tells you to, not simply pick and choose." She stated, more grimly now, "which is what I did, until I finally learned that while I tried to keep mine and other's honor intact, that I was actually hurting others and myself, because I was simply picking and choosing, just as you do. But, if you wish to truly become what you aspire to be, then I will help you, and will do the best that I can, not only to be your teacher, but your friend."

"But…but why would you want to be my f…friend?" the kendoist stuttered out.

"Because," Ranma whispered, as he tried to desperately stave off unconsciousness, "Kuno…sorry, Tatewaki, someone who has become very special to me, once told me that a no one is an island, and that you can never have enough friends, and I've become tired of all this crap that we've been in for the last two years. I'd really like to start over, and maybe, get a chance to see the person that has been in hiding for so long, not the delusional kendoist, but the man, that I could have maybe been friends with at another time, and maybe still could be."

Kuno glanced at his foes face, and in that moment, years of denial came crashing down on him with the force of sixteen tons of coal, and for the first time in a long while, he wept, actual tears of pain and sorrow, rather than the delusional tears of sorrow and joy that he had before then. He wept, and cried, and finally held his foes body, while Akane and Ukyo held onto both he and Ranma, and shed their own tears. And from that day on, something special happened that could have been great indeed.

End Flashback

Kuno had only paused in his training maneuvers for only a few moments while he went remembered, remembered the moment when Ranma had stopped being his rival, and instead had become his friend. Then the vision that he'd seen earlier popped up again, that still sometime irritating smirk that always crossed either of his or her faces.

"Come on Kuno," it seemed to say, "No rest for the weary, and no time to rest, if you want to be the best!"

"Damn you Ranma," Kuno sighed to himself, "I thought you were the best, and look what happened. You were supposed to teach me, how to be the martial artist I could be, as well as learn how to be a real friend. Damn you, you arrogant prick. You…"

Kuno straightened up, and then took his stance again. He would go on, he would show everyone what Ranma had taught him, and he would bring honor to both the house of Kuno, and to his teacher, his friend. With that, Kuno started his training again.

In another part of the house, there stood a large greenhouse, which was close to the same size as the training hall that Tatewaki Kuno currently occupied. Inside, instead of what should have been a place of beauty and peace, only the remnants of destruction could be seen throughout it. In the center, a beautiful young girl stood, with her hand hovering above a bunch of roses. The roses were truly unique, as they were two separate colors, with both of them almost evenly divided down the middle, one side a dark blue, almost black, and the other side a scarlet red. The young woman stood there, staring at the roses intently, almost as if she hoped that doing so would provoke a reaction from them. She stared, and continued to stare, even as her mind drifted back to another time, another place.

Flashback starts

"OHHOHOHO!" cried out a voice through the night, one that usually managed to set most of the residents of Nerima's teeth on edge. But this night, one person, stood there, ready to hopefully help her overcome what she had, and would instead allow her to become what she could be, much like he'd done for her brother only a month ago.

Ranma stood atop the roof of Furinkan high school, and waited for the person that he knew would be on her way there, locked onto his location as surely as a guided missile locks onto it's target. He stared intently for a few moments more before…yes; there she was, heading his way at full tilt, with little in the way to hold her back.

He smiled grimly, he really wanted to help her, maybe because she was at least as much of a space case as her brother had been, (and still was on occasion), and maybe out of a need to protect the weak, which while Kodachi was physically strong, she was still weak in the mind.

"Ranma-sama, thank you so much for meeting me!" she shrilly sang out, "And in such a nice and quiet spot as well! I suppose that you've finally decided to let these lips of mine capture your soul once and for all! HoHoHoHo!"

Ranma felt the small bit of fear that he always felt around Kodachi wash over him for a second, before he banished it back to where it came from, and turned to face her head-on.

"Kodachi" he started out, "Why?"

With that simple question, Kodachi stopped for a moment, and stared at Ranma curiously, her face showing that while she understood the question, she didn't understand the true meaning behind it.

"What do you mean my dear heart?" she asked him, for once, quieter than usual.

"Why me Kodachi?", said Ranma, continuing to stare at her, "I mean, there are plenty of good looking, handsome guys out there, some even better looking than me, and with a lot more of what you'd be used to. You know, money, status, power. Why do you think that you'd really be interested in someone like me?"

"Ranma sweetums", she said, almost a bit nervously, "Why would you even ask me that? I love you for you, and nothing would stand in the way of us."

"Nothing Kodachi", said Ranma, even as he used the Soul of Ice to its maximum effect, "Nothing at all? So if your family told you to quit seeing me, then you'd ignore them?"

"Of course my love", said Kodachi, a little bit of her mania creeping back into her voice, "Why when I explain it to the clan heads, then everything will be made clear, and then, it'll be a simple matter for us to marry."

"Really Kodachi", Ranma said, with a bit of an edge to his voice, "So if they don't agree, and cut you off, or remove you from the clan altogether, you'd be happy being married to an itinerant martial artist?"

"Ranma", said Kodachi, a little hint of the previous worry creeping into her voice again, "Why do you ask me such things as this? Our love, it…it can survive anything. It must!"

"Why Kodachi", stated Ranma in a clear voice, "Why can't we just be friends, and keep ourselves happy like that? Why do we have to be married? I mean, if it'd been someone else, then you'd be after them, right? You wouldn't give a crap about me."

"No Ranma-sama", said Kodachi, clearly a bit more upset now, "No, you and I are destined, like Anthony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Suzuki and Ieyasu. We have to be, don't you see, we have too."

Ranma started at this, before he looked at Kodachi dead on again.

So you mean that you and I have to be destined?" he said, before he took a step closer to the girl, who unknowingly took a step back, "Can't we just learn to be around each other first, and see how things turn out, instead of just rushing into everything? Can't we just be us, the people that we can become, with each other, instead of this game we play all the time?"

"Game", said Kodachi, a bit more on guard now, "What kind of game do you mean, darling?"

"This game that we seem to continuously play Kodachi", said a now slightly exasperated Ranma, "This constant chase, that been going on for close to two years. You know, the one where you use your gases on me, and I recover, and run away, only for you to try something like that again. Is that what you want from a boyfriend, or husband? Frankly, it's getting boring, you're getting boring, and I don't really want to do this anymore."

Ranma felt himself try to increase the Soul of Ice, as it looked like Kodachi's heart was starting to break as she finally caught the last part of that statement.

"But, but Ranma honey, you, you don't mean that, you can't mean that!" wailed Kodachi, "Please, don't be so cruel to me, I…I love you so much!"

"Kodachi…Kodachi-chan", and when Ranma said that, Kodachi's head snapped up almost faster than he could follow even, "Please don't think ill of me, but frankly, you scare me sometimes. You know, I never, ever, wanted anyone to know that I was scared of anything, but after having been around my Mom for the last two years, she taught me something about being a man. A man can get scared, of what it doesn't matter, but, as long as the man is able to use that fear, and not let it control him, then he's a man, no matter what! I have a terrible fear of ca…ca…cats, but damn it to hell, I won't let it stop me from what I set out to do in my life!"

Kodachi backed away a bit more, as Ranma had started to glow a dark red color, his anger overcoming the Soul of Ice technique.

"Don't you see Kodachi-chan", stated a now irate martial artist, "All that you've done to me over the last two years has driven me away from you! You chase me, even though you know nothing can come of it the way things are now! Do you know how many friends I had, before I arrived in Nerima?"

Kodachi shook her head, apparently now mesmerized by Ranma flashing blue eyes, lit up by the power of the life force that he was generating.

But Ranma-sweetums", she started to say, before she was cut off by a sharply upturned hand.

All I had before I arrived here was two friends, and one of them apparently hates me, because I'm better at the Art than he is. No Kodachi", said Ranma in a low voice, "If this is all we have to look forward to, why don't we just give it a rest for good, and leave each other be. Goodbye."

With that said, Ranma had turned around to walk away, when he heard one of the most dreaded sounds that he hated to hear, that of a young woman crying. Turning back, he saw that Kodachi had fallen to her knees, and was now openly weeping.

"Ranma-sama", she sobbed, "Please don't hate me…don't leave me. Mommy left me, and then Daddy, and Big brother, and now you too? Please don't, I'm sorry, I really just want somebody to play with. Please don't go… I, I need…"

With that, she fell over to her side, and started sobbing uncontrollably, and Ranma cursing himself for a sappy fool, walked over to her, and held her, while she clutched him like a drowning person would cling to a life-line.

'Thank goodness', thought Ranma, 'That mom taught me how to not be such a blubbering wimp around girls, if Pops had taught me that, maybe I wouldn't have had so much damn trouble just talking to girls before.'

Ranma held Kodachi in this position of the next 10 minutes, till he looked down and saw that she was fast asleep, so he picked her up in his arms, and started to roof-hop back to the Kuno mansion. They arrived there some twenty minutes later, and after Ranma got to figure out which room was hers. Quickly got her set into her bed, and got ready to take off, when Kodachi turned towards him, her eyes open and aware.

Ranma-sama", she called out sleepily, "Why?"

Unlike before, Ranma picked up on her meaning right away, another virtue of his hanging around his mother for the last few years.

"Because Kodachi-chan", he said sadly, "You need the help, and I bet that just like Tatewaki, you'd really enjoy having all the friends that you could get."

The pony-tailed gymnast smiled back at him, one of the first few smiles he's seen from her that contained genuine warmth.

"I'd like that Ranma-sama, I really would", she said, "but please, would you be able to call me Dachi? I'd really like to hear you call me that."

"Okay…Dachi", Ranma said, "But only if you just call me Ranma. That's what I like all my friends to call me."

"Okay Ranma", she said sleepily, "Good night then."

With that, she turned over on her side, and went to sleep for good, and Ranma made his way down the corridor, when he was stopped by another figure that appeared from another door.

"Well Ranma", said a tired but alert Kuno, "Do you think you got through to her at all?"

Ranma tiredly looked back at the room he'd just came out of, then turned back to one of his newest friends.

"I don't know, I guess we'll have to wait for it one day at a time, and see what happens next time," he said, as he nervously tugged on his pig-tail.

"I suppose so", nodded Kuno, before he turned around and headed back to his own room, stopping at the door for a moment.

"You know Ranma," he said, his back towards him, "A few months ago; I would've simply attacked you, calling you a foul sorcerer, and enslaver of women. Funny, how things change, eh?"

Ranma smiled wryly at Kuno's back, before answering, "Yeah Kuno, and I would've laid you out, and then you and I would just go back to our regular day, and the same thing would start all over again the next day, except I'd be tired, and you'd be recovering."

Kuno chuckled softly, before he turned his head to look back at Ranma.

"Yes, I guess we would, but honestly, I'm happy to have the chance to just wake up without being in pain, you know?" he said, yawning for a second.

Ranma smiled again, feeling a little refreshed and spooked at the same time, just to hear his former enemy not talking like a reject from a bad Renaissance festival.

"I guess so Kuno, I guess so." Said Ranma, before he waved his hand at him, and started to walk out the door, also waving at Sasuke, the family ninja, who waved back before settling down in his perch again. "Good night Kuno."

With that said, Ranma started to leap back towards home, and comfort, before he stopped suddenly.

"Ah crap!" he said out loud, "I still got to tell explain to about the curse! Well, first things first, let's see if it'll let up on me around her long enough for me to be her friend, then we'll see how that goes."

Ranma continued on, and slept in his warm futon that night, with one of the few nights of uninterrupted sleep that he'd had in some time.

End Flashback

Kodachi continued to stare at the roses, seeming to struggle internally, unsure as to what to do, when she seemed to relax, and set down the digging tool that she had held in her hand for the last ten minutes. She picked up the pot with the group of roses in it, and carried them over to an unblocked window, allowing them to get as much sunshine as possible.

"Oh Ranma", she whispered sadly to herself, "I'm sorry that we wasted so much time together. Wherever you are, I hope that you're happy, and safe, and remember us all with fondness, and that I'll get to be with you again, one…one day."

Saying that, she broke down into quiet sobs, while the rose, that she'd already decided to name 'The Ranma' bloomed in it's full glory in the morning sun, it's dark blue and scarlet red halves reflecting the sun in a glorious wave of color.

Meanwhile, in the his chamber, Ranma slept on, and continued to experience his own life, as though it was a film that was flashing before his eyes.

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3

Author Notes:

Hello everyone, and here's the next chapter of the story. Several people have asked me questions concerning the previous chapter, so my apologies if I didn't explain it well enough. Here goes: I decided to make the story into two separate parts, the A plot, showing what's happening in Ranma's past in Nerima, while the B plot will take place in Nerima's future, or Ranma's present. So, this chapter, 1-B, will take place in the year 3001. The next part, 2-A, will showcase Shampoo and Ukyo, and 3-A the Tendo sisters, with a lead-in to…well, that's a secret right now. Oh yes, the reactions when people are unfrozen comes from one of the earlier VIZ translated manga that I read, it was sci-fi comic, and the story was just great. A no-prize for anyone that might remember this comic just mention it in this sections review, and I'll let everyone know at the start of chapter 2-A.

Thanks for all the reviews, and encouragement, I do appreciate it all, and have honestly been surprised at the reception this stories gotten. I will make a list of all my reviewers at the end of the first volume of this story, as I want to thank everyone for their encouragement. Now, I just have to say, I will probably not post the next chapter for at least two more weeks, sooner or later, because 1. I'm leaving for a real-life job interview in Chicago, Ill. next week, and after I get done there, then 2. I'm leaving for vacation to meet with my in-laws over in South Korea, and to talk about a position at Seoul University. If I get that job, then of course I'll be living in Korea full-time again. Be that as it may, the next chapter is being worked on at this time, so look for it sometime in early December at the latest. But for now, Enjoy!

FutuRanma, part 1B

What went before?

In the past, both Kodachi and Tatewaki Kuno are currently mourning the loss of their friend, as it appears that everyone seems to think that Ranma is dead. Tatewaki has vowed to make himself the best martial artist and kendoist alive, and Kodachi is going to keep working with her flowers. However, what about Ranma…?

In his chamber, Ranma slept on, and continued to experience his own life, as though it was a film that was flashing before his eyes.

In a way, it seemed as though he was floating along a slow-moving river, with no real destination in mind, but that it was the journey that was more important than any type of goal at the moment. Ranma floated, and saw things that he'd forgotten for years, stuff like the time he and Ukyo had managed to get the neighborhood milkman angry at them when they'd put a wet okonomiyaki in his drivers seat, and it splattered all over him when he sat down. The whippings the two of them got that night was stupendous, to say the least.

Ranma mentally smiled at that moment, as well as the time when he accidentally spilled the secret sauce Ukyo had been making, and then tried to "fix" it, only to have it wind up tasting horrible years later. Then the smile turned to sadness, as he saw the way that he'd chosen food over his friend, and the scene shifted to a young boy on top of a cart, while his father was pulling it for all he was worth, and seeing Ukyo running behind them screaming, while little Ranma only thought he was saying goodbye.

Only 10 years later did he find out that his friend Ukyo was a she, the cart was a dowry, and that Ranma had been promised to her in marriage? Ranma was glad though, because his friend had thankfully missed out on some of the more "unorthodox" training methods his father had used over the years, including…the one that he remembered now, the one thing that had haunted him ever since his father had tried to teach him in it. Ranma mentally shuddered as he began to relive that day, the one that gave him night terrors up to the last day he'd been aware of his surroundings. That asinine cat-fist training, one of the most damnably stupid things on a long list of stupid things his father had done over the years.

Soon enough though, Ranma left the terrors of the cat-fist slide off behind him, and continued on his mental journey, seeing people, places and things that he'd long forgotten about for years.

Finally though, it seemed as though he could feel what seemed like an anchor of some sort, and then the feeling of floating turned into a feeling of soaring. Ranma could only make out some of his surroundings, though it felt like he was moving past points of light, like the stars of the night sky.

This seemed to go on forever, until finally Ranma saw what seemed to be a great void ahead of him, one that seemed to be filled to the brim with light, colors of all kinds shot throughout it, some that he didn't even know how to describe, though as he got closer, some of the lights started to separate out from each other, and from there, they grew ever more distinctive, until he finally saw, they were people, or rather their shades.

Ranma gasped, as he saw what must have been the largest gathering of people that he'd ever seen, and they were all proceeding into the light that filled his vision now, filled it with such beauty, and warmth, such as he'd never felt before, until all there was the light. Just as Ranma seemed that it was going to be his in a moment, he felt a pair of warm, slender arms wrap around from him from behind, and then, he heard, 'her' voice.

"Hello my sweetie," she said, "It's not your time yet, but I'll be here waiting for you, I promise, and someday, we'll be together forever. Now shoo, you've got important things to do, and people to help."

"But…but," stammered the now shaken martial artist, "I just wanted to…

"Hush now," she shushed him, "It's time for you to wake up my sweetie. Wake up, and live again."

With that last statement, Ranma tried to desperately turn around, so that he could see his beloved…and then there was a jerk, and a rush of light around him, and the next thing he knew was…

DING!

Ranma stumbled forward, and felt the world spin for a second, before he felt something else. Tears started to freely flow from his eyes, for only a few drops, but enough to make his eyes burn with them for a second.

Rubbing his eyes to get the unwelcome liquid out of them Ranma stood up to get his breath, as well as assess his surroundings. He seemed to be in the same room, with the same lineup of coffins against the wall that had been there before, except, some of them had been moved, and he could also see that there were different people in them.

Ranma blinked again, and then turned to see that it was daylight outside.

Damn it to hell", he muttered softly to himself, 'Ryoga made me miss the New years bash! Now I'm going to have to explain what happened to me, as well as find that little pig and teach him a good lesson."

Ranma stretched and started to walk by the window, only to stop dead, before he slowly turned to confirm what his sense told him existed out side of it. There, throughout the sky, were all kinds of strange vehicles, including what looked like cars, except, these were flying? There were billboards all over the place, advertising things in a language he'd never seen, ever, as well as people that were wearing some kind of jet packs. What finally knocked him off balance was the rocket that took off from a few thousand meters away, shooting straight up into the blue sky, before it disappeared in a matter of moments.

"Holy crap!" he shouted out, "I'm…I'm in the, the…"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the hiss of a door that he didn't notice till just now, and a man who stepped through, before getting into a very Kuno like pose, with the sleeve of his jacket held up in front of his face.

"Welcome to the world of tomorrow!" the man shouted in what Ranma guessed was supposed to be a spooky voice, "Now, come with me, good sir!"

With that said, the man turned around, and Ranma, not really knowing what to do, turned and reluctantly at first, then more confidently strode off after him.

The strange man flitted, for lack of a better word, down the corridor, occasionally glancing back to see if Ranma was still following along behind him. Ranma paused, along with the man, and when he started up again, Ranma hurried to catch up with him.

"Um, excuse me?" he asked him, "Could you tell me where I am exactly?"

"Of course!" the man yelled, as though Ranma was across the room instead of beside of him, "You're at the headquarters of Katsuhito cryonics, in New Neo Tokyo! You've been previously frozen in hyper sleep, and have just recently thawed out, and now, we're going to get you acclimated to this new life of yours!"

"Oh, okay." said the still shell-shocked martial artist, "So you're going to help me with that, huh?"

"Of course not!" the strange man said, "That's not my job! I simply escort the thawed to the fate-assignment office, and here we are!"

"Um, just one question," asked Ranma, "Why do you keep yelling like that, when I'm standing right beside you?"

The man stopped, and looked at a Ranma for a moment, seeming to be in such deep thought that his eyes crossed, before he turned back away from him and said quite seriously, "I…don't know!"

With that, the man continued on down the hallway, while Ranma stood in front of the door, which, with a SWOOSH-CLICK, swished open to the side.

Ranma stared at it for a moment, before he chuckled, as it sounded like the doors on that old sci-fi show Nabiki liked to watch when she thought no one was home. It was then that the door closed on him, falling down from the top this time, and hitting him square in the forehead as he glanced up at the noise it made.

"Oooow! Damn it to hell!" he cursed, as he lifted the door up one-handed, pushing it back into the slot, and then waited.

When nothing happened, he continued rubbing his head, and walked into the office. In front of him was a non-descript sort of desk, with a pretty regular looking chair, with a keyboard of some sort on top of the desk, but no monitor in sight. He then heard a cough from his side and turned to see…

"Sha…Shampoo? He asked softly.

The reason for this, was even though the women's back was to him, she had the nicest head full of purple hair he'd ever seen. It was done up into a simple pony-tail, and hung about halfway down her back. From behind, she also had a great figure, and looking at her movements, he could tell that she practiced some form of the Art. However, when she turned around and looked at him, it was all Ranma could do to jump up and grab hold of the ceiling.

The reason for this was, even though her front side was just as toned as her back, with nice full breasts, and a taut stomach, with signs of her having a six-pack there, her face was what immediately grabbed the attention. Her lips were full, with just a bit of a pout, and she wore a light purple lipstick, one that again reminded him of some that Shampoo had, because it matched her hair nicely. Her nose was just a bit on the large side, though not by much, and her ears didn't stick out, no, what caught Ranma's attention was the fact that she had a single eye, right in the middle of where two eyes would usually be. It was a nice enough eye, hazel-colored, and attractive, it was just, well, there was only the one.

"Hello," the woman said, and Ranma also noted that while her voice was a little deeper than any of the other girls that he knew, it was pleasant enough, "My name is Leela, and I'll be your fate assignment officer."

Ranma looked back at her, and said slowly, "Fate assignment officer?"

Leela just smiled back at him, and nodded, "Yes, the fate assignment officer is someone who helps the people that have been unfrozen to find their place in their new life. Now do you have any questions for me?"

Ranma looked for another moment, before he slowly raised his hand.

Leela sighed heavily and said, "Is it about my eye?"

Ranma blinked for a second, before he spoke, "Maybe?"

Leela groaned for another moment, and then said, "Go ahead and ask away."

Of course, giving that type of permission meant that Ranma could stick his foot in his mouth cheerfully.

What's with the eye?" he said, noticing that she could roll it as well as any of the other girls did when he asked a question, or said something sometime.

"I'm an alien, okay? Now can we drop this line of thought here, and move on to something else?"

"Sure," said Ranma, as he didn't really feel anything more to ask at the moment.

Okay", said Leela, I'm a fate assignment officer, and my job is to help people that have been frozen to adjust to their new…Yes?"

She had stopped when she saw that Ranma now had his hand in the air again, as he'd thought of another question.

"Does that mean that there's more people than me that are getting thawed out here in the future?" he asked reasonably enough.

Leela looked back at him, and said, "Oh yes. Believe it or not, there must be some 50,000 people that are still frozen; some won't wake up for another thousand years beyond this time."

"Beyond this time?" said Ranma more slowly than before, "Just what time is it that you're talking…about?"

The reason Ranma had slowed, was the dirigible that was moving slowly by the window, which had some glowing messages on its side:

Happy New Year's!

January 1st, 3001!

Eat at Joes!

"Is…is that right?" he asked incredulously, while pointing at the zeppelin.

Leela turned to where he was pointing, and then turned back to him, giving him that fake smile again.

"That's right," she said, Today's January 1st, 3001. You've been asleep for the last…let's see here, 1,000 years."

After she glanced down at some kind of clipboard, and looking back up at him, Ranma noticed what looked like a bit of sadness cross her features for a moment, before it was gone as quickly as it'd appeared.

"So," he said, "I've been asleep for the last thousand years, and in the meantime, you guys have taken over the Earth or something like that?"

"Oh no," said Leela hurriedly, "I just work here, in middle management. Okay, more like upper-lower management. Actually, I used to work in New, New York, but I transferred here three years ago."

"Cool" said Ranma, "That sounds like it's a pretty neat job."

Leela sighed again, before she said, "Yeah, well a person's got to do, what a person's got to do."

Ranma frowned for a moment, it sounded like she didn't really like this type of job at all. Still, he guessed even in the future, people had jobs that they didn't like sometimes.

Okay", said Leela, as she hurriedly clapped her hands together once, "Let's go ahead and get you set up. First off we have to make sure that you don't any type of disease that you were frozen for, and fix any type of defect that this body might have, so that you can be the healthiest, happiest person you can be in this new life."

Ranma blinked, at the sudden turn around in her mood, before he slowly nodded.

"All right" said Leela, who turned serious a moment later and put her hand on his shoulder, "Just relax, and remember, here in the future, you'll be treated with dignity, and respect. Now, strip naked and get on the probulator!"

Five minutes later

Ranma found the sensation of floating, for real this time, to be a little disturbing. Even though it wasn't very chilly in the room she'd taken him to, he still found his own natural shyness kicking in, as he held his hands in front of his groin, just so this strange, but so far nice woman wouldn't have to look at him at him so much. He turned his head, and looked at her; he still didn't feel so comfortable though with all the strange implements around the table. Just then she waved at him, before walking into a closed off chamber, and slamming the door shut to it.

Okay Mr. Saotome," her voice muffled over an intercom system, "This won't take but a few moments."

Ranma nodded at her and started to say something when he noticed that some of the arms on this machine had some really long looking need…

"Yaaaaah!"

10 minutes later

Okay Mr. Saotome, said Leela as Ranma started dressing himself, "It appears that the only living relative you have, is a Great, great, great

10 'Greats' later

"…great, great niece. Her name is Mitsuko Saotome, and she lives right around here in Tokyo." said Leela finally.

Ranma finished with the wooden ties on his shirt, and looked over at her.

"Hey, do you have a picture of the little girl?" he asked, and grabbed a hold of the one that Leela handed to him, only to look a little pale. The woman in the picture could have competed with Cologne in a contest for oldest ghoul, and maybe won. She was short, maybe had even more wrinkles than Cologne, and had long hair, tied up into a high ponytail that fell over her right shoulder, much like, like…

"Excuse me Mr. Saotome," said Leela, as she reached over and took the picture out of his now nerveless fingers. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, no, there's nothing wrong," said Ranma, "Just remembering something, so, can I go visit her?"

"Of course you can" smiled the Cyclops at him, as she sat down at the table in the same room they'd been in earlier, and pulled the keyboard toward her and started typing. "We just have to take care of what your job in the future will be, and then you can go to work, and visit her at the end of the day, okay?"

"Sure" said a still shaken Ranma as he picked up the picture of his great, great etc. niece and looked at it again, "Let's figure out what I'm going to do in this new life. Heh, maybe I'll finally get a job that I can really be proud of and make my ancestors proud of me as…

BZZZZZT!

"What the hell was that" said a startled Ranma, quickly leaning forward in his chair.

Oh, that's just your job assignment coming through now, said Leela unconcernedly, "Ah, here we are. Congratulations on the job you'll have for the rest of your life."

With that statement, she turned around a screen that Ranma now noticed was hanging in mid-air; the funny thing was that it squeaked as she did so, and then his heart dropped into the bottom of his stomach, at the words that were on the screen:

DELIVERY BOY

"Delivery boy!" he stood up and shouted, "What do you mean delivery boy, I'm a martial artist, it's what I trained my whole life for!"

"Well, I'm sorry," said Leela, "But the last job you had was a delivery boy, and there's nothing in your records to show that you were ever an accredited martial artist. So we have to go with what you had before; you also didn't finish college, it shows here that you hadn't declared a major before you were frozen? So we can't base it off of that either."

"You mean that I'm going to be stuck as a delivery boy for the rest of my life!" stated Ranma forcefully, "Well screw that noise! What if I don't want to?"

"Then you'll be fired…" said Leela, before Ranma interrupted her.

"That's not so bad." He snorted derisively.

"…from a cannon, into the Sun." she finished.

"What!" screamed Ranma, "What the hell kind of crazy world is this!"

"There's no need to shout Mr. Saotome, you should…" before Ranma cut her off.

"Ranma." he said softly.

"I'm sorry." said Leela.

"My name's Ranma" said Ranma again, "Mr. Saotome reminds me too much of my old man, so just call me Ranma, please?"

All right" said Leela slowly, "I really am sorry, but this is what you've got to do, if you want to live here. Now, just hold your hand out, and I'll implant your worker's chip, and you can start as soon as we get you outfitted."

Saying that, she held up another wicked looking device, and while Ranma had reluctantly held his hand out, he now hurriedly pulled it back.

"No thanks" he said, "You aren't sticking that thing in my hand, no way, no how. I'll take my chances in the outside world, I did it on my own for a while before, and I can do it again."

While he said that, Ranma quickly stood up, while the now not so nice woman stood up opposite him, and watched her get into a fighting stance, as he unconsciously slid into his own relaxed stance.

Leela glared at him for a moment, before she took a step towards him, and he took one back.

"I'm sorry Ranma, but you have to have this done, now please don't move around so much, since my depth perception isn't the greatest because of my eye," she said, as she suddenly lunged at him.

Ranma danced out of the way, and ran out the opening door, and back down the hallway, before he found himself back in the room filled with what he now knew were cryonic chambers. He turned around, as the purpled haired woman followed him in the room, before he slowly backed away, as he didn't really want to hurt her. She slowly stalked towards him, before with a loud KIIYAAH! She leaped towards him, only to miss Ranma completely as he ducked to the side faster than she could see, and then landed in one of the chambers.

The woman turned around just as the door slammed shut on her, and her single eye would have glared holes in Ranma if it could have.

"All right now," she said, "I'm going to count to three, and then…"

FLASH!

Ranma blinked, much like Ryoga had, as he watched the woman go from a living breathing person, to a now still statue. He slowly looked at her, and saw that she was completely frozen, smirked and started to walk out to the room, before he stopped at the door, and turned around, to look at her again, then walked back over to the case she was in.

After fiddling around with the controls, Ranma felt confident enough to mess with them, and looked the woman in her eye.

"You owe me," he said, right before he dropped the numbers on it from the setting of his original 1000 years, down to ten minutes.

See you around sometime," he mumbled to her, before he walked out of the room. After looking around a bit, he found what he assumed to be the elevator, and two minutes later, found himself on the ground floor, and out the building onto the street.

To say that he was astounded was an understatement to say the least. Ranma felt his eyes grow bigger with every new thing he saw, whether it was the ca…ca…cat, and dog that floated by while they were wearing some type of hover belt, or the different styled clothes that people wore, that looked only vaguely familiar, while everywhere, the buildings all looked futuristic, like in those old movies that he'd watched on television at the Tendo's sometimes.

Ranma felt something in his hand, and saw that he must have held onto the information concerning his grand-niece before he'd fled. After he'd looked on it for a few more minutes, he saw what he assumed was a phone number. Now all he had to do was find a phone booth, and he could give her a call, and maybe help explain this weird world to him.

Meanwhile, back at the cryonics room, the timer blinked, and blinked, before a loud DING went off again, and the door opened. Leela walked out, and blinked, before she realized what had happened, then blinked again as tears started to roll down her face, as she suffered from the same crying symptoms that everyone frozen had. Wiping her eye hastily, she glanced down at her wrist-computer, and checked to see that ten minutes had gone by.

Grabbing her coat from the office, she hurried after the young man. Even though he was a kid from the stupid ages, he still seemed to be a nice guy overall, just overly shocked at what'd happened to him, maybe his freeze was unplanned or something?

While Leela was rushing down to the street, Ranma saw a line of people standing in front of what seemed like a phone booth, so he got in the line, and waited with the others, since it seemed to be moving quickly. Hearing a tapping of metal behind him, he turned around and got another shock, as what looked like an old comic book style robot, was standing in line behind him. It was as tall as he was, with arms, legs, a body and head, but that was about it. It was a gunmetal grey color, with two eyes, that had square dots instead of round pupils, no nose, and what looked like a set of grinning teeth. When it spoke, he could see lines move across what he guessed was a screen where the "teeth" would've been.

"Hey", said Ranma, waving his hand at it, "Are you a real robot?"

"Yeah, I'm real, want me to break your nose and prove it?" it snapped back at him.

Nah, that's okay," said Ranma, "But you know, I thought robots were supposed to be like obedient servants, at least before they went on their rampages."

"Bite my shiny, metal ass, meat-bag," the robot said to him.

Ranma glanced at its rear end, and then back at the robots face again.

"Doesn't look that shiny to me," he said.

The robot gazed back at him, before it retorted, "Shinier than yours, meat-bag!"

Ranma remained unfazed by its comments, and turned back, too late however too see the closed opening of the booth in front of him flash for a brief moment, before it opened, and he caught the smell of burning…something.

'Man, someone must've been smoking heavy here' thought Ranma, before he pushed the button, in front of him. When nothing happened, he pushed it again, and spoke out, "Hello, operator," only to be pushed aside, as the robot crowded into the booth with him.

"Excuse me," it said, "Do you mind if I join you, so I can just get it over with quicker?"

"Okay," said Ranma, not really understanding, but then seeing the robot pull out a coin with a string attached, and watched it put it into the slot, that he'd just now noticed, and figuring that he should have tried some of the coins in his pocket.

"Hello" said a female computerized voice, though it was pleasant enough, "Welcome to We Love Seppuku. Please choose from the following options: quick and painless, or slow and terrible."

Ranma started to back out of the booth, only to find that the door had closed, and was now apparently locked, and that that damn robot had pushed some button in front of him.

"Thank you," said the voice, though it now seemed to be filled with menace, "You have chosen slow and painful. Thank you for using We Love Seppuku, and please have a nice day."

With that, the panel in front of the two opened, and Ranma watched as devices fell away from the wall, including a short sword blade, a circular saw, something with electricity going up and down it, and a large mallet that started out slowly, and then more quickly, to swing up and down. Ranma watched as the slow and decidedly nasty weapons of death closed in on he and the robot, while that jerk of a robot let loose with a loud, "HoHoHoHo! Come get me, baby!"

To be continued


	4. Chapter 4

Hello everyone, I bet you thought that you'd never see this updated again. Well, here's the next part of this fan-fiction, and here's hoping you all enjoy it. I know I said that this would come out in early or the middle of December, and here it is, the middle of February. Well, at least I got it out in a month of the year, LOL. For anybody that might be wondering, after receiving several reviews that said it'd be better for this story to concentrate solely on Ranma, and make a series of side stories that tell the story of the past, I decided that that would work better, and be less confusing. I'm working on the side story now, which will concern Shampoo and Ukyo, as well as the next part of this main story. Keep an eye open for both of them in the near future, I hope. LOL

Oh yes, for anyone interested, I got the idea for the experience Ranma has while asleep from an early VIZ translated manga, 2001 Nights, by Yukinobu Hoshino. The story was called Night 5, Rendezvous, and dealt with humanity's early experiments with suspended animation, and was honestly one of the stories that have made an impression on me since I read it. I hope I was able to capture some of the feel of that story in my writings here.

Okay, disclaimer time: Futurama is owned by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, and the Curiosity Company, and distributed by FOX Corporation. Ranma is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, and distributed by VIZ communications in North America. This chapter's special guest stars are owned by Naoko Takeuchi. Enjoy one and all, and oh yes, just remember, once you've read it, you can't unread it, Nyhahahahahahaha!

Part 3

Ranma Saotome was currently taken a moment of deep reflection, something that he had usually never had much chance to do, but was always happy when he found the opportunity. Right now he was contemplating his life, and reconciling it with the fact that it had apparently taken another insane twist. As he dodged, weaved and bobbed from the currently determined weapons of slow and horrible death, he was mentally reviewing his files, and resorting them under the category of, 'worst days ever'.

'Hmm,' thought Ranma, 'I guess the cat-fist training is right up there, along with being dragged away from my mom, as well as leaving U-Chan behind. Then there was the training to build my speed while being tied to a train, the wolves chasing me, going to China and Jusenkyo, thereby gaining my curse, then finding out that Genma made me sign a death contract. Oh yeah, I got beaten by Ryoga, and then found myself here in the future, where everyone that I knew is dead, and now I'm stuck in some demented booth, with a computer that seems to be a clinically efficient, yet homicidally insane version of Akane! Well, guess there's a new number one position for WORST…DAY…EVER!

"DIE, YOU BASTARD!" shrieked the mechanical voice, which had been oh so calm only moments before, "STAND STILL AND TAKE YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE A MAN!"

'Man' thought Ranma, 'Déjà vu, big time. Why am I getting flashbacks to Akane, if she'd been on her period and high on PCP at the same time?'

Of course, mused Ranma, it might have helped if he had a little more room to maneuver, and if that damned robot wasn't taunting the booth as well.

"Yeehaw!" it yelled, "Come on baby! Papa wants some loving, and you can bring it for me all day long!"

Ranma shook his head, even as he dodged another hammer blow. What the hell did the damn thing mean by loving, after all it was a robot, and robots don't do…that, do they? However, this train of though was interrupted, when he was hit by a blast of cold water, that came flying from several nozzles sticking out of the compartment that the weapons had came from.

He felt the now familiar change ripple throughout his body, and cursed silently to himself. Sometimes he wondered what he'd give to be able to go for at least a day without having to change, well, he did go a thousand years, but he'd apparently been asleep for all that time, so that didn't count, did it?

Just then, he glanced over at the opening, and saw what looked like a Jacob's ladder that he'd seen in his schools science class, the electricity flowing down the rods, and…electricity?

"Oh shit" muttered Ranma out loud, "This just keeps getting better and better all the time."

Just as the electric charged rods touched the now inch or so of water on the floor, Ranma leaped up in the air, using every bit of ki power at his disposal to stay aloft for a few more precious seconds.

At that same moment, the rods touched the water, and the robot started jerking crazily, like a marionette being yanked in several different directions at once.

"Ooooooooooyyyyyeeaaahhhhh bbbbbaaaaaabbyyyy!" it squealed out, "Ttttthhhhhatttt'sss tttthhhhhheee stttttttuuuuufff!"

With that statement, Ranma finally figured out why the robot had gotten into the suicide booth now, though he wished that it hadn't dragged him into this craziness. Just as he saw that he was going to finally impact with the water-filled bottom of the booth, the rods retracted, and he landed in the now steaming water, and felt the tingling sensation of his return to manhood.

The robot, for its part, seemed more disappointed than anything else, but before it seemed to be getting up a good head of steam to start its taunting again, Ranma grabbed hold of it, and spun it around to the door

"Okay moron", he snarled at it, "You might get off on the shocking and the electric… jiggity crap, but you go ahead and leave me out of it!"

At the same moment he ended that sentence, he stopped the mallet that'd been trying to hit him for the last few minutes, and instead directed the blow right alongside the robot's head, with the subsequent result that it flew through the air, and crashed into and through the door of the seppuku booth.

Ranma quickly dashed through the hole that had been made in the booth, before turning back and bowed towards it.

"Sorry, Ms. booth" he said, "But I've only just made it back here after a long time, and I want to have a chance to find anyone that I know. See ya!"

With that said, he started to walk away, while the booth leaned slightly to the side, and a now mumbling computer voice came out of it.

"I'll get you, you idiot," it slurred, "You, and…your…little…dooog toooooo…"

With that it felt silent, leaving Ranma to feel a little sorry for it for a second. That feeling was instantly swallowed up when a short sword flew out of the booth, narrowly missing his head and embedded itself into a wall behind him.

Rolling his eyes at the stupid machine, Ranma slowly turned around to face down another stupid machine. The robot had impacted on a building across from the booth, and was now lying on the ground in a pile of rubble, groaning softly, though how something like that could feel pain was beyond his experience.

"Well" said Ranma, a little menacingly, "What was the big deal with trying to get me killed in that dammed thing a minute ago, you stupid tin can?"

The robot shook its head for a moment, before it turned and glared up at the pig-tailed martial artist.

"Hey!" it said, "Why are you trying to get in the way of my romance time? I mean, if you were standing in that booth, then I should guess that you wanted to die, you stupid pile of flesh!"

Ranma stared down angrily at the machine for a moment, before his foot hit a brick that had fallen from the wall that the robot had landed against. Smirking for a moment, he picked it up, and turned his attention back to the robot.

"Say buddy", he asked, "What's that on your face?"

"Huh?" said the robot, "there isn't anything on my…ow!"

It'd exclaimed that right after the brick that Ranma had held in his hand only a moment before cracked it hard in the middle of its head.

"That was for trying to get me killed," growled Ranma, before he turned around and started stalking off, "Don't need any help with that, and I always had enough idiots trying to do that on my own time."

Ranma had only gone a few feet, before he felt a presence beside of him, and turned his head, only to see that robot that he'd just left in the rubble a moment ago standing alongside him, holding it's arm out to him.

"Hey there!" it said in a jovial tone, 'Name's Bender, Bender Bending Rodriguez. "Pleased to meet you!"

Ranma slowly, reached out and grasped the robots three-fingered hand for a moment, wincing at how cold it was, before he withdrew it and stared back at the machine in front of him.

"So", asked the robot, "What you're doing in a seppuku booth, if you don't want to die?"

Ranma glared at it for another moment, before he dropped his head, and stared down at the ground, before lifting it and looking at the robot again.

"Well", he stated slowly, "At first, I actually thought that it was…was a phone booth."

"A phone booth? A phone booth! Ahahahahahahahahahaha!" the robot howled with laughter for what felt like a good ten minutes, though it must have been only a few seconds. Still, Ranma felt his face flush, and started to stomp off when the robot paused, and actually acted as though it wiped a tear from its eye.

"Sorry 'bout that" it said, even while continuing to giggle, "How'd you think that was a phone booth, don't you know that these things are all over the place? I mean hey, the reason I like is because they give great…"

"I don't want to know, okay!" stammered out a now more red-faced Ranma, "I don't need to know that kind of stuff about what you robots like! I just woke up from this freezer thing only a couple of hours ago, and don't know anything about this stupid future!"

"Okay, okay", laughed Bender, "Anyways, so you're one of them de-frostee's huh? I ain't met one of you before, but, first time for everything I always say. So, what do you think of the future, eh?"

Ranma stared back at Bender for a moment, before he lowered his head, his eyes no longer able to be seen, and the two of them started to slowly walk down the street.

"I hate it," he whispered, "It sucks, because I don't know anyone here, all my friends are gone, and…and the woman that I loved is probably nothing but dust now. I don't even know if her grave, or the old home I used to stay in is still there, or if it's been destroyed sometime during the time I was asleep. I didn't even ask for this, I just wanted to have a relatively normal life for once, I mean was that so much to ask for?"

Ranma had said this bitterly enough that even Bender was able to pick up on his emotional state. The robot tentatively put his hand on Ranma's shoulder for a moment, before the two continued to slowly walk down the street.

"Hey pal, I can be your first new buddy in the future, said Bender, "By the way, do you got any money, I could use a stiff drink."

Ranma glared back at the robot for another moment, causing it to chuckle nervously, before they continued on down the sidewalk.

Just as they went around the corner, a the young woman who'd introduced herself as Leela earlier, come running out of the building, looking around desperately for the now disappeared martial artist. She came to a stop in front of the destroyed seppuku booth, before she sighed heavily, and lifted her right arm up, speaking into her wrist band.

"Attention, attention. This is officer 1.B.D.1., calling all units to inform you of a defrosted person who is currently out and about without supervision. I'm sending you a picture down the line, and if you see him, observe only, do not attempt to apprehend, over."

After hearing some words of acknowledgement, Leela started off in the same direction that Ranma and Bender had just went, pausing only long enough to glance at the destroyed seppuku booth again.

Moments after she left, a repair-robot vehicle rolled up, and started to work on the booth, stopping when the booth's Artificial Intelligence voice unit growled at it.

Hey you!" it snarled out, "Take me back to headquarters, and help me get a new body! I need one that I can use to track down a certain human and his pervert robot friend!"

"What the hell for?" Asked the repair-robot, "You just need to get back in your old shape, right?

"WRONG ANSWER JERK!" screeched the booth, "Someone just made my list, and he's still out walking around, which means I'm going to find him, and then, and then, his pig-tailed ass is mine! Nyahahahahahahaha!"

At that moment, the repair robot decided that after it took the booth back to the factory, that maybe it was time to go into a less stressful position, like say, solar fusion maser relay repair. Still though, with a robotic sigh, he picked up the booth and started to trudge back to the factory, while the booth continued to rant and rave about jerks of a robot, and humans that didn't know their roles and wouldn't shut their mouths.

Ten minutes later found Ranma and his new friend Bender in a bar named O'zorgnax's about three blocks down from the cryonic center, with Ranma currently amazed that the robot was apparently an alcoholic. This was due to the twenty beers it'd already drunk, and it had just polished off its twenty-first.

"Um" started Ranma, "do you really have to drink so much alcohol?'

Bender paused in drinking his twenty-second beer to stare at him for a moment, before giving the robotic equivalent of a shrug of its shoulders.

"Oh yeah" it said as it finished, "Us robots are powered by alcohol, you know…oh, guess you didn't know that either. Well, anyway, we robots are alcohol powered, so yeah, anything with that makes us go, I just like beer and hard liqueur for the taste, you know?"

"Oh, I guess that makes sense" said a still confused Ranma, though he wasn't going to admit that, "So, what do you do for a job in the future, where everyone has to work?"

"Yeah, well, I'm a bender," said Bender, "I bend things for other people. I guess you could say I'm a freelancer; doing all kinds of odd jobs, know what I mean?"

"Oh, okay, that sounds kind of cool" said Ranma, "So, what are you bending today?"

"Well, today, I just finished bending the pylons for a new spaceship," Bender stated, "And after that, decided to go out on the town and have some fun, which is where I happened to meet up with you, and well, now here we are. Are you sure you don't want a drink?"

"No thanks", said Ranma, "Alcohol and me don't really get along too well."

"Okay, more for me then," said the robot, as it started on its twenty-third beer; while Ranma's eyes wandered around the pub that the two of them were in.

It was a fairly dingy place, with a bar with several old style stools at it, along with a few booths that were just like booths at the old ice cream parlor he and Akane used to hang out at sometimes. The floor was done in a small black and white checkerboard pattern, and the windows were a dirty yellow, presumably from all the smoke, and all the flames that the robots belched out, considering Bender had done that three times since they'd been sitting down and drinking.

Ranma continued to look around, bored because no one else was there, and wondering if it'd be a good idea to try and find the Tendo home all by himself, when he caught a figure out of the corner of his eye, and mentally groaned to himself.

Outside the window of the pub, stood that purple-haired girl that had tried to stick him with that big-ass needle…thingy and she was…

"Oh shit!" gasped out Ranma, as he saw that she was showing his picture to any passersby, "Now what am I going to do?"

"Huh?" said a now slightly tipsy sounding Bender, "What're you talking about?"

"That woman outside the window," said Ranma, pointing toward Leela, "She was at that freezer place, and is probably looking for me, if that picture she's holding is any indicator. I just don't need this crap right now, I just want to find out if my old home is still around, and what happened to my…shit!"

Ranma had exclaimed that last part because as he'd been talking, Leela had been showing his picture to anybody walking around, when a man she showed it to, stopped, looked over her shoulder, and pointed to Ranma in the pub.

He saw what he assumed was her thanking the man before she turned and walked through the door, glaring at him for a moment, before her eye softened, and she slowly walked over towards him, moving like he was a wild animal getting ready to flee, which in point of fact, Ranma was considering doing just that.

The one-eyed lady sat down in the booth next to Bender and directly across from Ranma, looking at him with a mixture of sympathy and professionalism.

"Hello Mr. Sao…I mean Ranma", she started, "I should have been more understanding of the way that you felt earlier, and I want to apologize for my previous behavior. It was rude and highly unprofessional of me, and I wish to say that…I'm truly sorry."

Ranma sat across from her and stared, it was very rare for the women in his life to apologize to him, even the ones that were "closest" to him, i.e. all of his former fiancée's. So hearing this was almost as big a shock as finding out that he'd been frozen for a thousand years, thawed out, and awoken in a land that he'd never even really conceived of before, almost.

"That's okay" said a now subdued Ranma, "I kind of understand that you were trying to do your job, it just sort of…overwhelmed me for a little bit. To tell the truth, I'm still overwhelmed, just, kind of letting the shock getting to me a bit."

When he said that, Ranma slumped back in his seat a bit, causing Leela to stand up in concern, and Bender to lean back so he could chug his beer easier. The Cyclops walked over to Ranma's side of the booth and sat down beside him, holding the back of her hand to his forehead. Satisfied that he didn't have a fever, she gently took a hold of each of his hands with both of hers, and held them while Ranma struggled to control his roiling emotions.

After a few more minutes, Ranma had finally gotten himself under control again, and looking up at the young lady nodded his head, letting her know that he was all right for the time being.

"Okay', said Leela, "What can I do to help you adjust a little better to this new world/"

Ranma looked down for a moment, and then looked back up at her, before he spoke.

"You know", he said, "I'd really like to see if the place that I called home for almost five years is still around, or if it's been swept away with a lot of the rest of my world. I want to see if I can find the graves of…of my family, and my…"

Ranma stopped for a moment to gather himself again, and looked back at Leela.

"I just have to know", he said, "You know?"

Leela gently put her right hand on his shoulder, and nodded.

"Oh hell yeah!" said Bender from his seat where he'd been forgotten for the moment, "That means we get to go to Old Tokyo then, right? Cool, maybe we can take the shortcut through Crystal Tokyo, and I can finds me some fem-bots to hit on, hehehehe."

Both Ranma and Leela put their hands to their foreheads when they heard that, and started out the door of the pub, with the quickly sobering robot following behind them.

Walking down the sidewalk, Leela pointed out various spots and sights of interest, while taking the time to inform Ranma that she'd only lived in Neo Tokyo for a few years, so she her self was still learning about the city too.

After about twenty minutes of walking, Leela slowed down, and motioned to the others to stop.

"Ranma", she said, "Now, we're going to take a shortcut to get to Old Tokyo, but to get there, we've got to go through what's called Crystal Tokyo. You know, maybe its better if we just take an air tube, and go that way, even though the tubes don't connect with Old Tokyo like they do within Neo Tokyo."

"Why should we do that?" said a puzzled Ranma, "I'd like to get there as fast as possible if it's all the same to you."

"You see," said Leela, "Crystal Tokyo is a really beautiful place, and the people are happy all the time, it's just, well, it's just…

"Hey Ranma?" said Bender from his right side, "What old one-eye here is trying to say is, that the ruler of this place, Queen Serenity? She's crazier than a metal nut-bar in a room full of rabid squirrel-bots, if you get my drift."

Leela glared at Bender, but the robot either ignored her, or was just that oblivious to her emotional barrage.

"Well," said Leela, as she tugged nervously on her ponytail, "What Bender was trying to tell you in his own inimitable style, is that, sometimes strange things happen in Crystal Tokyo, and that people that go there that aren't members of the society, well, sometimes, they don't come back, or they come back…different."

"Different…like how are they different?" said a now very confused Ranma, "You mean like, they've got different bodies, or they act like they've had their brains switched and the person who was there isn't that person, but some other person who…"

"Ranma, you're babbling like a brook" said a now smirking Leela, who turned serious again, "No, we just know that people who come back from there act differently, more at peace with themselves, but they can never say why or how it happened, only that it did. Now where did you get some of these crazy ideas from?"

"Ah", said a now pink-faced Ranma, "Well, one of my fian…friends from long ago, she was really big on these sci-fi and horror movies, and whenever I visited her, well, she always have a new one that she wanted to show me, and so, I sort of got some of those ideas stuck in my head, you know?"

"Oh yeah," grinned Leela, "I like to watch some of those ancient comedies too. Well, anyway, maybe it'd be best to just take the long way, it'll only add a three more hours at the most to reach the outskirts of Old Tokyo, and then we can find out if that old homestead of yours is still there, or if it was destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 2127.

"Ah, screw that noise!" growled out Bender, "Let's head into danger town, I want to see if they maybe got some kind of cute death booths around here."

Bender started off to the right, walking at a quick, if steady pace to the borders of Crystal Tokyo, while both Leela and Ranma stared after him, before they took off after him, hoping to catch him, Leela because she didn't really know what else to do, Ranma because he'd suddenly gotten an image in his head of the robot either dragging someone else into danger, or worse, dragging him into it, especially when he didn't really understand everything going on around here.

They caught up to Bender on a few moments later, with both of them picking him up by either of his arms, and Leela loudly berating him about going where he might have had no business, when dark shadows fell around them, followed by a loud…

THUNK!

All three of them stopped moving and talking, with each of them looking up, only to find themselves surrounded by giant…Gundam's? Maybe they would have been closer to that old anime Nabiki watched, Manzinger. They appeared to be some kind of giant robots, each one done in a particular color scheme, one in a mixture of blue and white, two of them in a mixture of greens and white, and the last one had a mix of purple and white.

Ranma looked closer, and then got another shock, these "robots" were definitely of the female persuasion, and for a minute, their intense stare reminded him of the ones that he'd get when he was on the receiving end of some of the fiancée chases through Nerima. He shook his head, and listened to Bender going on about dying and going to robot heaven, and babe-o-rama come to papa, when the shortest of the robots, the one with the purple paint scheme, but which still stood a good ten meters high, leaned down and stared at them intensely for a moment, before it spoke.

"Greetings", it said in an artificial female voice, though for some reason, it sounded very familiar to Ranma, "Welcome to Crystal Tokyo, the most wondrous place in seven universes, a realm devoted to the concepts of love and/or justice. We are the Sailor Senshi robots, guardians of this kingdom and the subjects that live here. What is your purpose for visiting this place?"

"To get a good look at some hot chick's baby", yelled Bender, before anyone could stop him, "Now howzabout letting papa have a look at them mainframes. Whoohoo!"

Both Leela and Ranma put their hands to their foreheads again, since it seemed like Bender just couldn't help himself at times, well, all the time.

The giant robot looked down at Bender silently for a few seconds, before speaking again.

"I'm sorry" it stated in a low voice, "But that answer is…INCORRECT!"

Ranma saw the windup before either of the others and had already picked up Leela in his arms and leaped to the side with her before the robots leg went back and there was a tremendous CLANG, giving them both enough time to see Bender yelling while he was flying up and out of sight, looking at least to be headed in the general direction of Old Tokyo.

Ranma turned back to look at Leela, and grinned for a moment.

"Well, at least he's getting a head start on us in the right direction" he said in a halfhearted attempt to lighten the situation.

Leela stared at him for a moment, before a ghost of a grin crossed her lips, before she noticed that both of their faces were on a few inches apart. Ranma appeared to notice only a few moments later, and he hurriedly set her on the ground.

The two of them stared up at the giant robots, which had turned their attention back to them, and were if not glaring, at least looking at them very intensely.

"Well", asked the same robot, though it sounded a little angrier than before, "Are you here for the same reason?

"No," said a more subdued Ranma, "We were just cutting through here, in order to get to Old Tokyo, so I could see if my old place was still there, or if it was destroyed completely."

"Excuse me" said Leela, "My name is Leela, and I work at Katsuhito cryogenics institute. You see, he's just woken after being in a hyper sleep chamber for the last thousand years or so, and he wants to find out about the world that he remembered before."

"Asleep for a thousand years," said the tallest of the four robots, one of the two decorated in green and white livery, "Tell me human, what is your name?"

"Ranma Saotome, of the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts," he said, his chest puffed out with confidence, "And I'm not going to let you stop me from trying to find my home, even if you are giant robots, with beam sabers, and N2 mines or whatnot."

The four robots stared for a moment, and Ranma and Leela would have almost sworn that they'd sweat dropped for a second, before the tallest of them spoke again.

"Ranma Saotome" it said, "You and your guardian may depart then. If you go in that direction, you will reach Old Tokyo in less than an hour. Simply cut across Endymion memorial park, make a right turn, walk two blocks, and turn left, walk three blocks, and you'll be at the outskirts of Old Tokyo, in what used to be the Nerima district. Please, enjoy your stay in the future, and have a nice day."

With that the four robots turned as one and started to head off in the opposite direction, while Ranma and Leela blinked for a moment.

"Okay" said Ranma, "That was… different"

"Let's not look a gift hippo in the mouth" said Leela hurriedly, and grabbed a hold of Ranma arm, "Instead let's just get going in the direction they told us, I do have places I want to be tonight."

Ranma looked over at her, and smiled a small sad smile, before he pulled his arm gently free and the two of them continued on their way.

Meanwhile, some blocks away, the four giant robots from earlier were now kneeling on one leg, and previously disguised hatches had opened up in their torsos, which converted into steps that led to the ground, allowing four young women to emerge from them. The first one to the ground had short bluish hair, looking quite similar to Akane Tendo, with a blue and white variation of a school girl sailor dress uniform, while the second female to step to the ground had short dark purple hair, almost black in color, and a hairstyle similar to Nabiki's page boy cut.

The other two women were taller than their counterparts, and had long hair, one with brown done up into a ponytail and the other one whose hair was a dark green, which flowed down to the small of her back. They all had variations of the school girl uniform each done with the same respective colors of the robot or powered suits that they'd been in, though their uniforms had a lot more bows and ribbons than the standard school girl dress.

"So tell us Pluto" asked the girl in purple, "Did you know that Ranma was going to wake up today."

The lady with the long green hair stood and looked thoughtfully at the sky for a moment, before she turned to regard each of her companions.

"Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn," she said to the blue, green and purple suited girls, "To tell the truth, I knew it was to be soon, but with everything happening with Crystal Tokyo, I honestly lost track of when it was to happen, but if it has, then we need to be ready for the coming chaos storms.

"Oh" said the girl known as Jupiter, "He looks as handsome as he did back when I last saw him. I can't wait to speak with him again, and then go on a date with him and then…eeeeeeee!"

"Jupiter," said Saturn, "You know Queen Serenity will not allow us to meet him until Ranma adjusts to this new time and world, it'd come close to breaking him mentally and physically, considering what he's going to find out when he gets to the training hall. We really need to hold off on bothering him right now, and you all know it."

"But I want to have"…started Jupiter, before another voice cut her off.

"Saturn explained it very well Jupiter," said the new arrival, "and she's completely right."

The four ladies turned to the new person, a tall regal looking woman, with a shimmering white dress that reached down to the ground, but attracted no dirt whatsoever, and had long platinum white hair, with blond streaks throughout it, done up into pigtails on top of her head, that reached almost down to the ground.

"Queen Serenity," chorused the four, who all dropped down to their right knees for a moment, before standing up again.

The Queen of Crystal Tokyo brushed this off and looked at the four again.

"So, Ranma has woken up, huh?" she asked the four, "Does he know what awaits him at the Tendo home?"

"No my Queen," said Pluto, "We only told him that he would be allowed to pass through here unmolested. Even if we had told him, it's highly unlikely he'd have believed us until he saw for himself."

"Is she with him as well?" asked the Queen, turning about as if to check for spies, "Does she know of her destiny yet?"

"No not at all, my Queen." Said Pluto again, "She is in much of the dark as Ranma is about his destiny. I know that from the way I acted centuries earlier, this would have been no problem, but, I find, along with every other one of us, that maybe we should investigate more about what Ranma's fate is to be, along with this other female, Leela."

Queen Serenity raised an elegant looking right eyebrow at that statement.

"You Pluto," she almost laughed, "The mistress of sneaking about and incomplete answers, you feel somewhat bothered by this?"

Pluto bowed her head for a moment, feeling a pink flush over her perfectly tanned skin, before she looked at her Queen again, while the three other girls stood there with jaws almost dangling.

"I find that my feelings for him have not diminished over the centuries," she said, "My Queen…Usagi, he is someone who I could imagine spending my time with, were he allowed an opportunity to be able to improve his mind more."

Queen Serenity, once known as Usagi Tsukino stared back at Pluto for a moment, before she laughed, with a voice that sound like crystal chimes in the wind. After a few moments, she composed herself, and walked over to Pluto, putting her hands on her shoulders.

"Setsuna" she said, "I will agree with you, Ranma is a fine catch, but, if any of us treat him that way, it'll drive him off, and all of us, every scout here on Earth and off-planet knows that as well. We will wait, as we've done for the longest time know, and when the time comes, we will become his friends first, and go from there. Now, let's get back to the palace, because the cooks are making quintuple decker hot fudge sundaes for dessert, and that's one thing I'm not going to miss."

With that statement, the Queen disappeared in a sparkle of lights, leaving behind a grin that faded away after a few seconds, and a group of Sailor-suited soldiers of love and justice to gawp at where she'd stood a moment before.

"Sometimes" said Mercury, "She acts like the most mature of us, and then, she's still the Usagi that we've all come to know and love over the centuries."

"Yeah" said Jupiter, "And you know we wouldn't have her any other way. Now, why don't we go check for any other demons before we head home?"

"Okay," said Saturn, "And while we're at it, let's keep an eye out for moronic space captain's that think they're God's gift to women as well."

The girls continued to chat as they walked back up into the control chambers of the power suits, and after the hatches closed, all four loped off away in different directions. Not long afterwards, Queen Serenity reappeared in a sparkle of lights again, looking around before clearing her throat. Immediately afterward, a small figure hopped off a roof of a nearby building, and kneeled in front of here, before standing back up again.

"So," said the Queen, "You are to follow Ranma and the young lady Leela to the Tendo training hall, keeping an eye out for any dangers that he may not be able to handle in his current state. He is one of the best martial artists in the world, maybe even in the universe, but even he has his limits, and I want to make sure that those limits are not reached, at least today. Am I understood?"

The small figure stood up, and bowed formally to the Queen, before he turned and started off in the same direction that Ranma and Leela had gone. Queen Serenity stared after it, and sighed once. She missed Mamoru, but was happy to see Ranma again, and maybe, just maybe, for him, she could be plain, ordinary, clumsy Usagi again, if only for a little while. Holding back a tear, the Queen of Crystal Tokyo gathered herself, before she again disappeared, not hearing a small voice say "SWEETO!" in the distance.

While this little meeting was happening, Ranma and Leela had gone in the direction pointed out to them by the Sailor soldiers in their giant robots, and had crossed through to the outskirts of Old Tokyo. Ranma actually had to repress a shudder for a moment; this was Tokyo at its worst. Everywhere he could see, the buildings were dilapidated if not completely disintegrated, and any people that he saw were covered in filthy rags.

"How could things have gotten so bad Leela?" asked Ranma as the two of them walked through the streets, "I mean, considering how nice New Neo Tokyo is, and Crystal Tokyo, how can they have let things get so bad on this side of the city?"

"I'm sorry Ranma," said Leela, it's just that Old Tokyo sort of got shoved aside when New Neo Tokyo was built, and after awhile, it was just easier to completely ignore this area instead of taking the time to fix it back up."

"Yeah, but still"…Ranma said when he stopped as he saw a sight that almost made him burst out laughing. Sticking out of a dust bin, two objects waving wildly as they were being pecked on by hungry owls, was what he assumed were Bender's legs.

"Yaaahgle! Ghleeeyeyeee! Leeemeeeegoooooo!" Bender continued to yell out mostly unintelligible words, as the dump-bin continued to rock one way, and then the other, while the owls continued to perch and peck away.

Ranma and Leela continued to stare at the flailing robot for a few moments longer, before they walked up to it and Ranma squatted down next to the bottom of the bin, so that he could make himself heard.

"Hey Bender!" he yelled, "Just hold on a minute, and I'll get you out, okay?"

Ranma waited a few moments for the robot to stop flailing about. When it hadn't after a few minutes he got ready to bang on the bin again, when it did quit, and he heard a voice float up from the bottom.

"Ranma," said Bender, "Is that you out there, or some robot-cannibal, out to strip the outer metal from my framework, and do all kinds of horrible, yet dangerously exciting things to me?

"Yeah, it's me," said a now rolling his eyes Ranma, "Now all I'm going to do is pull you out of this dust bin, and THAT'S IT! Have you got that!"

"Okay, okay!" said a less agitated Bender, "Just get me out of this stupid thing, so I can get some beers somewhere, okay?"

Ranma grabbed a hold of his legs, and started tugging, all the while keeping a wary eye on things around him and Leela, none of the residents had shown up for a little while, but he didn't want to take a chance if he didn't have too.

After pulling for about a minute, he felt the robot starting to loosen, when with an audible POP! Bender flew up out of the trash can, and both he and Ranma fell head over heels to the ground.

Leela put her hand over her mouth to keep from bursting out laughing, as both Ranma and Bender lay on their butts, definitely looking a bit dizzy from the experience. Ranma stared as an owl that had been perched on the bottom of Bender's foot earlier, hopped over to him, blinked its eyes, and stared at him with some anticipation.

Looking back at it, Ranma tracked its eyes to where it was looking, and felt around the top of his head, only to pull his hand away hastily as he felt something bony and slimy. After a few seconds, he put his back on the top of his head, and discovered that the object was a partially eaten fish, with the head and tail still relatively fresh. Ranma held the fish in his hand for a moment, and then tossed it over to the owl, which seemed to hoot almost happily, before it picked it up the treat in its beak, and hoped away to the corner of the street, only then stopping to enjoy its feast.

Meanwhile Bender had gotten up, and wiped all the trash that he'd been covered in off, and now looked about as pristine as usual, except for the rather large bow-shaped dent in the area between his legs.

Leela walked over to Ranma, and held her hand out to him, at which Ranma stared at it and the grin on her face for a moment, before he grinned himself and took a hold of it, the two of them working together to pull him to his feet.

"Well Ranma", said Leela, "Now that we've found Bender, do you have any idea of where the place is that you're looking for at all; any landmarks that you can see that might still be here?"

Ranma looked around for a moment, before he narrowed his eyes, and then put his hand to his forehead.

"Well', he said wryly and pointing off to the distance, "Unless I'm mistaken, that looks a lot like the old high school that I went to when I lived in this area."

The two others followed his finger, and looked towards a spot in the distance, where an old Japanese high school building stood, having somehow weathered the centuries with only a medium amount of decay, considering how long it'd been there.

The three all turned to look at one another, before Bender headed off in the general direction Ranma was pointing towards.

"Okay, okay" he grumbled, "Since it looks like old Bender won't be getting some beer or action anytime soon, might as well see what so damned important about this place, eh?"

"Heh." said Ranma, "I never figured that jerk of a tin can would've tried to help anybody."

Leela looked back at him for a moment, before she smiled again, walking over to Ranma and looking at his face intently for a second, before she turned to follow Bender.

"You know," she said as she walked away, "I'd say that he's actually taken a liking to you. It's seemed that in my experience, when a bending robot actually deigns to like someone, then they'll stay with that person, through thick and thin. When they decide they like someone."

Ranma started to follow the two, grumbling under his breath.

'Yeah,' he thought to himself, 'but it still acts like a jerk sometimes. Probably as bad to me as I was to the others when…'

Quickly banishing that last thought, Ranma sped up and caught up with Bender and Leela, and together they continued to make their way deeper into the heart of what he now recognized as Nerima.

'You know its funny' thought Ranma, 'I remember walking down these streets when they were full of people only a short while ago. That spot right there, was where I caught that bus to go down to my last delivery. That building right there was where…'

Leela and Bender stopped while Ranma ran up to a small building that had fallen in on itself, and stared at it intently. The two walked over, with Bender speaking to Ranma in his usual quiet, formal manner.

"Hey, you smelly bag full of pus!" shouted the robot, and startling Ranma for a second, "What's up with the stupid collapsed building here, and do you know where I can find some hot looking fem-bots around here?"

Ranma stared back at the robot, hand twitching for a moment, and contemplated about whether it'd be so bad to just feed it to a giant…something that'd eat robots. Yet, as he looked at the robot, he could have swore that in it's mechanical eyes, that there was something there, but it seemed like Genma in a way, in that the dammed thing just couldn't express its feelings any better than that.

Ranma stared for a few seconds, before he turned back to the storefront.

"I think that this building, used to be the business I used to work at," he started out slowly, "It was a pizza parlor, the money was pretty good, but the real reason I worked there was for me to be able to buy something special for people I knew. That's what I was doing that last night, working to buy something special for someone. I had a regular job, but that was used to provide income for a household, and not much money could go to anything else, so this was just my way to earn special stuff for people that meant the most to me."

Ranma continued to stare at the decayed storefront, while Bender gazed at him, and Leela held back, not sure what the robot was going to say.

"Well, you know?" said Bender in a slow voice, "Maybe you just had something to happen, which was meant to, you know? Or something like that?"

Ranma and Leela gaped at him, considering how Bender usually spoke even they could see that that was strange coming from him, the most civil answer he'd really given up to that point.

In the palace, Queen Serenity/Usagi just smiled a small secretive smile, and started on her seventh quintuple decker hot fudge sundae while the other Senshi that had came to dinner groaned and held their stomachs, their bellies threatening to pop their uniforms off.

Back in what Ranma recognized as Nerima, he'd stopped staring at Bender, and the three of them had moved on. Ranma pointed out various landmarks to Leela and Bender, with Leela looking genuinely interested, and Bender acting as though it was the most boring place in the world, which for him, probably was.

After continuing on like this for about forty-five minutes, Ranma again stopped suddenly, and his breath hitched for a second. His two new friends stopped on either side of him, with Leela looking a bit worried, and Bender looking bored as usual.

"What's wrong Ranma?" asked Leela quietly, "Is there something wrong?"

Ranma only pointed to the building they'd stopped in front of, and the others took a closer look at it. The place they were standing in front of was a traditional-styled Japanese home, though they couldn't see very much of it due to the large wall that surrounded it. One surprising thing Leela noted right away, was that while many of the other buildings that they'd passed were either close to disintegrating, or had done so, this place looked almost immaculate, almost as though time around it had stopped.

Bender walked over to the gate, and looked at a sign that was on the wall next to it.

"Anything goes training hall. He read out loud, "All who wish to engage in savage combat should come around to the back dojo entrance. All other guests should ring bell."

Leela stared at the sign after Bender finished reading it, and then turned back to look at Ranma, whose face had gone almost ghostly white for a second before his color returned.

"Well", Ranma said after another moment, "I guess we're guests after all this time, so why don't we go see what's up?"

With that last statement, Ranma rang the bell. The three waited for a few seconds, and when it seemed that no one was going to answer, Ranma reached up to ring the bell again, more to simply hear a noise from his past, instead of expecting an actual answer.

That's why everyone was surprised when the door suddenly opened, and there stood…what was apparently a female robot, apparently the fem-bots Bender had been talking of earlier. It was as tall as Ranma, with a head that was similar to Bender's, but instead of an antennae pointing up, there was 'hair' on her head, well, more like a metal approximation of hair.

As Ranma stared at this robot longer, he could make out features that seemed similar, such as the way the hair was done up in a sort of bun, and that it was wearing a type of metallic kimono. Ranma also noticed that the hair was a dark red color, and that the features seemed very close to that of his own…

"Hey guys, why does that robot sort of look like my…Mom?" Ranma asked the other two with him, but all he got was a negative shake of the head from Leela, and Bender, well, he was currently ogling the fem-bot.

"Excuse me" asked the robot, in a voice that was a very good mechanical rendition of Nodoka's, "May I ask what the purpose of your visit is? If you have come to challenge the dojo, the current master of Anything Goes is not available to answer it at this time.

"Who's the current master?" asked a puzzled Ranma, "Can you tell me when he's due back to the dojo?"

"The current master is Ranma Saotome," the Nodoka-styled robot answered, "He is currently on a training mission for one thousand years, and is due to return anytime now."

"Um, well…"stuttered Ranma for a moment, "I'm Ranma Saotome, and I guess I'm back from the training trip then."

The Nodoka-bot stared intently at him for a good thirty seconds, before it stood up straight, and started speaking in a monotone voice.

"What was the nickname of the third Tendo daughter?" it said in that now spooky monotone voice, "A. Miss Universal Beauty Queen…B. Uncute Tomboy…C. Rat Bitch from Hell?"

"Um…I guess that'd be b." Ranma said while scratching his head.

Suddenly fireworks shot up from over the robot, and a large sphere fell from the ceiling along with confetti, and a sign sprung up that said 'Correct!'

"You are correct," said the Nodoka-bot, "Ranma Saotome, please come in and take your place as the master of the dojo. Would you like some refreshments, or would you prefer to catch up on your messages?"

"Messages?" asked Ranma, "From who, and how many are there?"

"You currently have 136 messages on the video-tronic screen," said the Nodoka-bot, as it seemed to sashay to the common room, "The latest in Tendo-dynamic technology. As for who they are from, they are from your family and friends that used to live here in Nerima. Please have a seat, while I and the others make the house more suitable for human inhabitants."

Ranma and the others looked puzzled at the mention of others, when several smaller robots, and several more that looked like clones of the Nodoka robot that had met them started to clean the place in earnest, starting in the common room, and working their way out, only occasionally pausing to ask if Ranma or Leela wanted anything, and brushing off Bender's attempt to hit on them.

Ranma and Leela sat down on the couch situated in the middle of the room, and stared at what appeared to be a very advanced television, one much bigger than the one they had had at the house before, almost as tall as it was wide. The Nodoka-bot walked over, and gave both Leela and Ranma a cup of tea, which Ranma noted was surprisingly good, for some place that hadn't probably used it in centuries. After the robots gave Bender a bottle of rice-wine from the cache in the storeroom, the three of them had seated themselves on the couch, Ranma anxious to see what he could.

The Nodoka-bots all stood in a row, four on each side, and then one more appeared, and though Ranma couldn't tell if it was the original that'd met them at the door, he had a feeling that it was that same one.

"Ranma Saotome," it began, "You currently have 136 messages. Would you like to see the introductory one first?"

"Yes, I would," said a somewhat shell-shocked Ranma.

"Very well," answered the Nodoka-bot, "If you wish to pause, rewind, or stop, you may say any of those phrases, and it will do that automatically. It and the robots in this home were designed to use and learn your speech patterns. Please, take care, and we will be there if you need any assistance.

With that the robots all left the room, with only Bender's acute hearing picking up what one of them whispered to itself as it left, "Take care…my son."

Ranma looked over at Leela on his right side, and then glanced at Bender on his other side, then said to the screen, "Play messages for Ranma Saotome."

The screen lit up, and then fragmented for a moment, before it settled down on a camera view. Ranma smiled, it was one set in the dojo, and there was everyone that he could call a close friend there. Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo, and Kodachi sat on the left, while Kuno, Hikaru Gosugunki, Mousse and Ryu Kumon sat on the right. Soun Tendo was sitting in the middle, with his mother Nodoka setting next to him. In front of everyone was…

"Hello my sweetie," said a person that Leela was frankly jealous of at first sight. She was dressed in a simple aquamarine dress, with an apron trimmed with ruffles, long chestnut brown hair, that was tied up into a simple pony-tail that hung over her right shoulder. Her face had a few wrinkles on it, and it took her a moment to realize that she must have been older than Ranma was anticipating, as he looked puzzled for a second, before she looked down, and saw the date: May 18, 2017.

Ranma already looked like he was going to cry at the sight of her, and Leela figured that she must have been a sister, or maybe she was a fiancée.

"Ranma," she said, and gently touched his shoulder to get his attention, "Is that girl your fiancée or something?"

Ranma turned to look at her a moment, before he turned back to the screen, where the girl had begun talking again.

"No, not my fiancée," said Ranma, "That's Kasumi Saotome…my wife."

To be continued…

Hope everyone liked this, and maybe that was a nice twist at the end, will wait and see what you, the readers think. Be on the lookout for the next chapter coming sometime this spring…or summer, hopefully, depends on how RL takes me.

Makes a circle out of thumb, and forefinger, holding it up to eye "Be seeing you."


	5. Chapter 5

FutuRanma 5

Wow, I can't believe that it's been so long since I updated this, but with it being so long, and my writing fingers itching, I decided to put this out. It's not been looked at for a while by anybody but me, as it sat there, mocking me with it's…mockiness, so here we are. If anybody who reads this would like to beta this, or any of my other fics, then take a looksee, and tell me what you like, don't like, and OMG the horribleness! Have a fun read, and let's see if this is the jumpstart I've been needing.

FutuRanma 5

Leela blinked her eye a few times before she turned and glanced at Bender.  
The robot rolled his eyes and shrugged before returning to  
chugging the barrel of Sake he'd been working on for the last 22.3 seconds.

Turning back to Ranma, Leela asked the question that immediately came to  
mind, considering that even though Ranma didn't look that old, he really was.

"You're…? She's your wife?" Leela asked incredulously. "But, I thought you were  
still single, or maybe engaged, but not married."

Ranma looked at her for a moment, before turning back to the screen. The  
image of Kasumi was in an almost waiting pose, as though she knew somehow Ranma  
would be either asked or answering questions at this moment.  
Leela also turned to look at the women on the television screen. She blinked  
again, and resisted the urge to rub her eye.

The lady -- Leela still found it hard to believe this was the image of  
Ranma's wife -- was dressed in a simple housedress, light blue in color, with a  
yellow apron adorned with an orange cartoon chick roosting squarely in the  
upper slope of the woman's rather impressive chest.

Leela shook her head and watched in silence. Ranma simply sat  
and stared at the young woman on the screen. She seemed to stare back at  
him, as though time was no barrier to their thoughts and emotions. Leela felt as  
though she could see the bond between the two, despite the fact the woman  
was nothing more than a memory now.

Near the top of the apron, the words "Piyo" appeared on either side of the  
cartoon chick. "I wonder what that means," Leela thought.

The woman appeared to have very few wrinkles, so she was still relatively  
young at the time of the recording. Leela smirked. She'd learned appearance  
of youth was no real indicator if this girl was like so many of the Japanese  
girls she'd met while living in New Neo Tokyo.

She probably looked very young for a large part of her life Leela thought.  
At least that was how it always appeared to her. She'd seen ladies in their  
sixties and seventies who looked as though they were still in their twenties  
or thirties.

The girl's chestnut brown hair was done up in a simple ponytail that hung  
over her right shoulder, reaching down almost to her elbow. She was  
sitting in the sieza position, knees on the floor, with her head tilted  
slightly to the side and her right hand on her cheek.

For just a moment, Leela could have sworn on a stack of Bibles, the woman  
was truly looking out of the screen at her lost love...

"Lost love..." thought Leela to herself, now where did that come from?

"Um, Ranma," Leela said quietly, "So, how did you meet her? Was she a  
childhood friend, or did you just meet one another and hit it off at the right  
moment?"

Ranma continued to stare at the image of Kasumi. He blinked a few times,  
before he spoke up.

"It, it was an arranged marriage," the martial artist said quietly.  
"Originally, I was engaged to her younger sister, Akane, but, well,  
something happened that turned things sour between us."

"I was engaged to the middle sister, Nabiki for a little while, but while we  
sort of got along okay, the way we were, we'd have been almost as bad a  
match as me and Akane. That left the oldest sister, Kasumi, and well, she  
and I made it work out."

"I see," said Leela. "So you two got married, and it was sort of just  
getting along with each other huh?"

"Well," said Ranma, "it started out sort of like that, but, the more time I  
spent with her, the more I came to realize the two of us had a lot more in  
common than I thought we did at first."

"Ranma sweetie," Kasumi's voice interrupted, causing his head to jerk away from Leela, and riveting his attention to the screen once more His head jerked  
away from Leela, his attention riveted on the screen once more.

"I hope this message finds you well. I realize it's already been a few years  
since I last spoke to you ... I guess I've changed quite a bit, and you,  
well; I guess you're just the same as you were when you ... " her voice caught for  
just a second, "were frozen."

Kasumi stopped, looking down at the floor of the  
training hall for a moment. Bender, who'd taken a break from  
hitting on the Nodoka-bots and the two liter jug of Sake,  
could see she was trying to keep her emotions in check. Ranma's heart  
threatened to break as he watched her image struggle for composure.

Kasumi's image looked up and smiled out of the screen after gaining control  
of herself. Again Leela felt she was witnessing a link between the two. It  
was as though Ranma and this long dead woman were sitting across the room  
from each other as Leela watched. It shouldn't be, no, it couldn't be possible, Leela  
thought.

To Leela, Ranma seemed entranced by the sparkle of the image's eyes. The  
scene of the two eternally separated lovers staring helplessly into each  
other's eyes sparked a disquieting sensation for Leela Turanga. For a  
moment, she felt a tightening in her chest she hadn't felt since her days  
with Shawn. It was the same burning feeling she used to get when another girl spoke to him at a restaurant or on the  
street.

Leela crushed the feeling with ruthless efficiency.

Still, the pang forced her to turn away for a moment. She took a calming  
breath before turning back to the semi-conversation.

She failed to notice the Nodoka-bot slap Bender down with a spiked mace that  
appeared out of nowhere. Nor did she notice when it turned its attention  
fully upon her and Ranma. Not even the lurching dance, complete with paper fans the fem-robot began to perform, pulled Lela's gaze from the mysterious man before her.

"Kasumi," Ranma whispered almost to himself and the screen, "I wanted so  
much to give you your New Year's present. If there was some way for me to do  
it now; then I'd fight anything or anyone, if only I could hold you again."

"Oh Ranma," Kasumi's words seemed to respond to his spoken thoughts. "I know  
you'd do anything for me, and I would for you too, but this is one opponent that you can't just beat in a fight, or come back for a rematch with. You can't beat time, dear. It's the one thing no one can out run, out fight or outlast, on this world anyway."

"Stop," Ranma said quietly, tears leaking from his eyes. He turned and  
looked at both Leela and Bender. "Um, would you both excuse me for a little bit? I, I  
just want to -- to have a little time alone with my, my wife and family, just for  
a little while, you know?"

"Nah, I think I'd just like to set here and get me another chance at some of  
these cute fem-bots," said an increasingly leering Bender. The robot's  
reaction made Ranma wince. He suddenly thought of the robot as a mechanical version of Happosai at his  
worst.

About two blocks away from the home and training hall, a diminutive figure  
sneezed, stumbled and fell hard on his face, leaving a good sized and rather  
faithful impression of it in the worn down sidewalk.

Leela took another moment to stare at Ranma, before she nodded once, and  
headed out of the room after "convincing" Bender it would be in his best  
interest to leave with her. The duo set out to explore the grounds, leaving  
Ranma in the living room. They didn't hear him tell the recording to start up  
again.

The pair toured the property escorted by the Nodoka-bot. Bender's advances  
were met with increasingly violence rebuffs, but he refused to take the not  
so subtle hint. The group finally found themselves in a smallish room. It  
appeared to be a new addition to the ancient home. Its construction was the  
most up to date one they'd seen, though not modern by any means.

"What's this place?" Leela asked the Nodoka-bot who had been their guide for  
the last thirty minutes.

"This is the virtual dojo," the fem-bot replied, "It was designed to act as  
a training ground for times when the Master of the school wanted to go on a  
training trip, but might have been unable due to any kind of complications.  
Instead, this room was constructed, allowing you to go to anyplace on Earth.  
It will allow you to recreate any of the opponents who the Master has faced  
over the years."

"Good night!" blinked Leela, "This is. Well, it's amazing! Why, with this  
kind of technology, it's, it's just."

"There are a few reasons why this technology has become 'lost' over the  
years,' the Nodoka-bot interrupted, "One, because the technology's creators,  
Nabiki Tendo, Kodachi Kuno, and Kasumi Saotome felt it would be in Ranma's  
best interest to have something no one else had. Secondly, as it is right  
now, his school of martial arts, the Anything Goes, has been banned since  
2015, and no one else has ever even heard of this lone training hall out  
here in Old Tokyo."

Leela gaped for a moment, before she stuttered out, "His school of martial  
arts has been banned? What could have happened for that to have occurred?"

"The previous grandmaster of the school decided he was in need of some fun,  
or, 'wanted to raise hell' if my memory banks recall correctly," Nodoka-bot  
stated dryly. "So he decided to go on what he considered a "training  
expedition." It consisted of panty-raids throughout the land. However, since  
Ranma was not there to control him, he ended up raiding the Imperial palace,  
involving him with not only the Empress's panties, but in him touching the  
Empress herself, in inappropriate ways. She, to say the least, was not  
amused."

Leela gulped. No wonder she'd never heard of the Anything Goes School before  
today. It explained why there was no mention of it in Ranma's file. It  
seemed likely the Imperial family, after banning the school, probably purged  
any mention of it, or anything connected with it, from the old records. With  
the death of the last official masters, well, that meant there was no legacy  
remaining of it, at least until Ranma awoke.

"So does that mean if Ranma is caught practicing the Anything Goes," Leela  
squinted for a moment, "Then he'd be officially punished?"

"Yes," the fem-bot stated simply, while she swatted away Bender's roving hands  
with a sheathed sword that seemed to be pulled from nowhere. "However, unless he  
actually admits to it, he should be safe for the time being. Anything Goes  
is such an amalgamation of styles, it should be difficult for anyone to  
prove he's actually practicing it."

Leela sighed in relief, before blinking again. When had she gotten so caught  
up in Ranma's problems that she found herself worrying about him? Hell, he'd  
just woken up today, and here she was, actually considering going along with  
hiding a potential criminal. Still, it was one of the few things he had left  
that was his own, and it felt bad to just turn him in.

"Well, since Ranma might be awhile," she asked her hostess, "Would it be all  
right if I got a sparring partner made for me, and tried this place out?"

"Of course,' replied the Nodoka-bot, "However, I would ask you to please  
remove your boots as is custom. Place them in the corner over there."

Leela dithered for a moment, before she removed her boots and placed them to  
the area the robot indicated, choosing to ignore Bender's comments about the  
air suddenly smelled like boot-feet. She started to stretch.

While Leela continued her stretching, Bender continued on his ongoing, but  
fruitless attempts to hit on the Nodoka-bot, still, he was surprised when  
she beckoned him to follow her outside the virtual training hall. Once  
there, Bender rubbed his hands in glee at what he supposed he was going to  
receive from her.

"Okay pretty lady, the man-bot grinned, "Now how about letting old Bender  
why he's known as the love machine in seven different star-systems?"

However, before he could make another move, Bender suddenly felt something  
very sharp held against the edge of the antennae on top of his head, one of  
the most important parts of a man-bots body, (aside from the mouth, where  
you could consume mass quantities of alcohol), but before he could even  
start to ask what was up, the Nodoka-bot spoke up.

"Mr. Bender," she started in a much more serious tone than she had spoken in  
earlier, "You are a boorish example of a man-bot. However, you have also  
managed to become a friend with Master Ranma, which is exactly why I'll  
forgive it for the time being. It is my hope that, unlike others did in the  
past that you will learn not to push your luck more than is absolutely  
necessary."

As Nodoka-bot finished her last statement, and started to step back into the  
virtual trainer, she found that her path was blocked by Bender.

"Just what is Ranma to you anyway?" he asked with a sarcastic tint to the  
words, "Why's a fem-bot so concerned with a human? I mean I can see you  
being programmed for that, but this, this is going way beyond any kind of  
program that I'm aware of."

"Let's just say Mr. Bender," the Nodoka-bot stated while eyeing him warily,  
"That there's more to me than meets the eye as well, and that's all that you  
need to know…for the time being."

With that last statement, the fem-bot turned back to where Leela had now  
taken up a stance, though not without taking a wistful look back to where  
Ranma was sitting in the family room, turning up her audio sensors so that  
she could hear whatever questions he was asking, though she knew that some  
of the answers that he received were probably going to be painful.

In the family room, Ranma continued to sit and listen to all of his family  
and friends, as they continued to explain and tell him about things that had  
happened since he'd been frozen. The thing was, it seemed like they wanted  
to tell him everything…

"…And that's all that happened in 2005," Kasumi said, as she sat down a  
large notebook with 2005 written on it, "Now, 2006, there was some  
interesting things that happened that year, first off…"

"Stop, just hold up a minute," Ranma said, putting his hands up in the  
time-out signal, "Could we just…I mean skip through to the highlights? It's  
hard for me to…"

"Ranma, you jerk!" bellowed a very familiar shriek from off of Kasumi's  
right side, before a younger woman with medium-length blue/black hair popped  
into view. The expression on her face had Ranma sweating bullets.

"Ranma Saotome! My big sister has gone to all the trouble of doing this for  
you," she snarled from the screen, "And you have the…the absolute gall to  
ask her to hurry up?! DIE RANMA!"

With that last word, the girl picked up a mallet that looked bigger than  
her, and charged the screen. Ranma had put his hands over his head, and was  
waiting for the impact, when after a few moments; he realized it had never  
come. After sitting, with his eyes closed for a few seconds more and no  
mallet impact, Ranma warily cracked opened his eyes. The girl that had been  
standing there screeching at him just seconds ago, was now so close to the  
screen that her face filled it completely, and was now giving him the  
red-eye.

"Biiidaa, Ranma!" she smirked, before she pulled back to see some of the  
people onscreen convulsing in laughter, while even Kasumi was holding her  
hand over her mouth, with her face cherry-red from controlling her giggles.

"Saotome," stated a voice from off to Kasumi's left, and another woman came  
into Ranma's view, this one with medium length light-brown hair, cut into  
what Ranma assumed was the current fashion of the day, "You don't know how  
long Akane has been planning to do that. Now have you gotten it out of your  
system, baby sister?"

"Hey Nabiki!" shouted Akane, her own face flush now, "I just wanted to make  
sure that Ranma…that he…damn it Ranma, just try to stay out of trouble!"

Right after saying that, everyone in the room, including Ranma, started  
chuckling or giggling, before bursting out into full blown laughter. A few  
minutes of this passed, before Ranma rubbed at his eyes, and said deadpan,  
"Okay Akane and maybe I'll run for Prime Minister too."

This set off a fresh round of laughter, and Ranma, for the first time since  
he awoken, felt better than he had that day. The hilarity continued for a  
few moments longer, until all involved got themselves back under control, and  
Ranma used that time to really take a look at everyone in the room.

Kasumi was sitting in the middle of course, while his sister-in-laws, Nabiki  
and Akane sat on either side of her. Next to Akane was his oldest friend,  
Ukyo Kuonji, still wearing the white ribbon that she habitually wore in her  
hair. She'd gained a few pounds, and a few lines, but her hair was still  
the dark-chestnut that it had always been. Next to her sat Kodachi and  
Tatewaki Kuno, the siblings looking much the same, with Tatewaki dressed in a  
stylish suit, and Kodachi in a beautiful purple kimono, with her hair done  
up in a bun similar to his…his mother's.

Off of Nabiki's side, sat her father Soun Tendo, his hair just as long, with  
a touch of grey on the temples, though he no longer had his mustache, which  
actually made him look a bit younger and next to him sat a beautiful younger  
woman that Ranma recognized was his old English teacher, Hinako Ninomiya, in  
her adult form, wearing a kimono as well, done in light pink with flowers.

Next to them sat…his father, Genma Saotome, still wearing his martial arts  
uniform, though this one was cleaner than usual, and next to him sat…his  
mother, Nodoka Saotome, wearing a dark red kimono that matched her own hair  
color.

"Hello my manly son and womanly daughter" which caused Ranma to almost lose his balance, "Heh, I bet that almost caused you to fall over didn't it? Oh Ranma, You may have an idea, but it's hard to describe how difficult it was to wait for you for all those years, and then when we do meet, that things went so wrong. I just wish that…well, that is the distant past for you now. You must listen to me my son, for there are things appearing on the horizon."

Ranma sat up straighter then, while Nodoka paused to smooth her kimono.

"Master Happosai has done something most terrible," she said while she started fiddling a bit with her long sword, before setting it off to the side, "He has managed to infuriate the Empress herself. It seems that she was wearing a specialized set of unmentionables that were ordered from France, and Happosai decided that he wanted them, along with the chance to grope a royal personage."

Ranma covered his eyes with his left hand and started to clench his right. Trust Happi to mess things up for the family.

"Unfortunately," Nodoka paused before taking another deep breath "With what he did, it caused a disaster concerning our families. The Empress has banned all practice of the Any Thing Goes style as long as there is a divine ruler of the country of Japan."

"WHAT!!" Ranma fairly screeched, "That…that…uninhibited idiot! Couldn't he just once, once, have left things alone, instead of…?"

"Instead of doing the right thing for once boy?"

Ranma whirled at the intruder, only to fall onto his butt, since he knew that this couldn't be. It was not possible that the small shriveled up gnome standing in front of him was the same dreaded Master Happosai from a thousand years ago.

"Not only possible, but most probable lad," the little man chuckled as he hopped into the room, "Yes, with the power of Anything Goes…ouch, ouch, ouch! Okay, that was a small lie…Ouch, ouch! Okay, okay, I actually made a deal with the ruler of Crystal Tokyo."

Waiting a moment to see if there was any pain, Happosai relaxed when nothing hit before he turned back to Ranma and pulled out a pipe, worrying on the tip for a second before he put it away again.

"Yes Ranma, I don't smoke anymore, but it helps me to get my thoughts in order," Happosai chuckled again, "Well Ranma m'boy, let me say that I did make a right mess of things with the Empress and Royal family. Sometimes I curse the day that I ever figured out how to steal ki from the pretty ladies, as it just made me into as much an addict as some of my contemporaries who were addicted to opium."

"Yeah, well, I can see that you're sorry, but…"Ranma struggled for a moment, trying not to yell, "Did you have to just wreck the Art for me and the rest of the family? Without the Art, what do I have? That's all I had going for me, you know?"

"RANMA SAOTOME," a shouted voice that not only surprised Ranma by the volume, but because it was Kasumi who shouted, "The man I married would never quit, never give up! Just because the Anything Goes is banned, doesn't mean that you couldn't start a new school of the Art. In fact, it why Grandfather Happi came here to see you, isn't that right Grandfather?"

"Thank you m'dear," Happosai said before he turned back towards Ranma, "That's right boy, I'm going to train you to learn a new form of the Art, one that will have some similarities to Anything Goes, but will also be different enough to be considered new. I figure with your learning curve, you should have the basics down in three years or so, depending on how serious you are about it."

Ranma looked ready to happily agree before another voice broke in, "Three years?! That's impossible, since he has to report to work today, or he gets fired into the sun!"

Both men turned to look over at a sweaty Leela, who was sporting quite a few bruises, including a blacked eye, while Bender was walked behind her, his arms folded behind his head leering at the Nodoka-bot. She came over and sat down heavily on the couch in the main room, and leaned back to catch her breath for a moment, before sitting up straight.

"Ranma, I know you want to do this, but even as superior an artist that you are, you can't take on the planetary police force," she said with a grimace, not paying any attention to the little troll that looked ready to pounce on her heaving chest, but was fighting the attraction.

The group of them all sat quietly for a minute, before Ranma's head snapped up, and he pulled out the readout on his many times grandniece, "Hey, Leela, it said on here my niece had a company of her own, right? Well, what if I could apply for a job there, and then maybe be able to practice the new version of the Art after quitting time, and during my days off."

Leela sat for a moment, before standing up abruptly.

"We can try Ranma!" She stated, with a decisive look on her face, "In fact, why don't we both apply there, as I'm damn well fed up with working for the freezer shop too! She has her own fleet of starships, and I've got a pilot's license. You're strong enough to handle things as well as most robots. Now come on, so we can get hired today before the standard work shift's finished."

Leela held out her hand, giving an expectant look towards Ranma, who stood clueless for a second, before figuring out what she wanted, and helped her to her feet. Turning back to the screen, he walked over to it, and put his hand on it, while the Kasumi there reciprocated.

"Bye honey," Ranma started as he stepped back and over to the mud room to put his outside shoes on, "Considering this wacky world here, I've got to go see about getting hired, before I give 'em another reason to come after me, aside from the Anything Goes ban. I promise, now that I know that the house and dojo are standing, I'll be by as much as I can, so we can talk more, okay? I…I love you so much Kasumi, and the rest of you too. Well, except for Pops, he was just a pain in the…"

"Oh to have son who's so disrespectful and lazy!" wailed the part-time panda, before he found himself knocked winding by a mallet, sword, frying pan and a large roll of change in a sock.

Ranma and the others started out for his niece's business, with the Nodoka-bot waving merrily, only to stop as her sensitive receptor's picked up a small question from Ranma, "Hey Leela, how was it that the playback thingy seemed to be able to respond to me and the rest of us like it did?"

Closing the gate, and activating the defense grid, the Nodoka-bot went back into the house, nodding to the others on the screen, even as they nodded back to her, before the screen itself shut off . Moving around, it hummed lightly to itself, as it cleaned up the small mess that Happosai and Leela had made, before finally settling into a wall niche and shutting itself down.

*One hundred meters beneath the dojo*

The room was relatively small, only enough for three or four people to move about in, and with all the machinery inside it, probably a chore for one or two people. Sitting on the floor, the rectangular desk-sized object had a steady rising and falling humming noise, while various lights blinked and flashed on and around it. Nothing else could be heard but that for another few moments, before the distinctive voice of Nodoka Saotome echoed around the room.

"Do not worry my manly son; Mummy will be here for you, always"


End file.
